
Class 
Book 






Copyright N°. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A Socialist's Answer to 
The Catholic Progress. 



Commenting on an editorial 
in that paper of Nov. 4, 1904 

By JOHN KINAN 



^yr 



Acme Publishing Co. Prets, Seattle. 



! UBRAKY of C0WQS£ss1 X 

<*<■> Copies deceived 

FEB 13 1905 
/tf 9 0.5-7 

1 COPY b, ' 



COPYRIGHT APPLIED FOR 

BY 

JOHN KINAN 

1905 



INTRODUCTION. 



The writer of "A Socialist's Answer to the Catholic 
Progress" does not expect that this little book will revolution- 
ize the world and its ideas of Socialism. He realizes that time 
and study, alone, can open the eyes of mankind as to what 
Socialism really means. He does think, however, that perhaps 
these ideas of his now brought to the light for the first time 
will bring Socialism, its aims and objects, and what it is op- 
posed to, within the mental reach of all. 

"A Socialist's Answer to the Catholic Progress" is written 
by one of the people for the people's consideration, in the hope 
that possibly it will help a few to break away from the old 
ideas so long driven into them, and set them in a position to do 
their own thinking. 

When it comes to actual political economy, the average 
man is completely lost and repeats words and ideas handed out 
to him by the monied power, whose interests are best served 
by the ignorance of the masses along these lines. 

It is to this class of people who have been taught that 
Socialism and Socialists are a threat to our existence as a na- 
tion and a people that this book is dedicated, with the hope that 
they may be wakened to see and realize the conditions as they 
are, and not as they are said to be. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Anarchists' Naturalization 85 

A Socialist's Answer to the Catholic Progress 8 

Bank of Venice 43 

Capital as a Disturbing Element 42 

Carnegie's Share of Twelve Years' Profits 14 

Churches and Moral Training Protect Society 58 

Conclusion 97 

England's Rake-Off on the Demonetization of Silver 44 

From Governor Mead's Inaugural Address 87 

Gold the Base of All Value 37 

Government Ownership 64 

Fallacy of the Competitive System 39 

History of the Great Northern Railroad 29 

History of the Northern Pacific Railroad 28 

How Socialism Would Arrange the Various Classes of Men 26 

How Washington Affects Our Representatives 36 

Importance of the Terms Used in Political Economy 24 

Introduction 3 

Land, Labor and Tools of Production 37 

Man in the Primitive Age 41 

Martin and Martinism 62 

Ministers Paid by the State , 61 

Missionary Convention, Philadelphia, Pa 55 

Mr. George's Theory a False One 38 

Mrs. Toutenbaugh 58 

Necessary Evil 16 

Panic Failures of '93 44 

Power of the Editorial 79 

Prosecuting Attorney's Office 61 

Rev. Mr. Graham on Henry George's Theory 32 

Science a Word Much Abused 49 

Scientific Economy 18 

Socialism an Effect 92 

Socialism Self-Condemned, by J. Sefton, S. J 47 

Social Switzerland 65 

Swiss Arbitration 74 

Swiss Workmen's Secretary 70 

The Cardinal Principles of Political Economy 25 

The Competitive System 14 

The Evolution of the Idea of the Absolute 50 

The Four Schools of Modern Philosophy 49 



Contents 

Page. 

The Granden Farm 64 

The Grover Cleveland Panorama. 83 

The Labor Law of the Canton 65 

The Press in Politics 16 

The Prostitute Fund 19 

The Tariff 34 

The Wealth Labor Creates 77 

Union's Effect on Price of Labor 35 

Was Christ a Socialist? by Dr. Titus and the Rev. Stanley 96 

What Gives Value to Gold or Silver?. 42 

What the Catholic Progress Says 7 

Who Creates the Value in Real Estate ? 30 

Why Every Man Should Support the Church 57 

Why Men Are Wedded to the Present System 20 

Why Some Men Are Socialists 17 

Why We Do Not Favor Socialism 7 

Wilshire's Magazine 84 

W. J. Bryan on Public Ownership 40 



WHAT THE EDITOR OF THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS SAYS 



Why We Do Not Favor Socialism. 

"A reader very politely asks us by letter why the Church 
condemns Socialism. We must say that we have reproduced 
many articles on Socialism in our columns in order to acquaint 
ourselves with the subject. We have our own views on Social- 
ism which we wish to give without having it understood that 
we are speaking for the Church. 

'We do not favor Socialism because it is one of their prin- 
ciples to denounce the Church and all religion. We do not 
favor Socialism because we have asked the best known local 
exponent of the system what he proposes to substitute for the 
present plan of government when his party is sufficiently strong 
to displace it. To which he answered that they have no fixed 
plan, but that time will adjust this matter. This is too in : 
tangible and if this is the general view the agitation is not 
based upon any philosophy commanding our respect. We do 
not favor Socialism because the spirit of America is one of en- 
terprise and industry. Socialism it seems would inflict upon 
us a race or nation of time-serving and indifferent workmen. We 
believe that men are not born equal in talent, and some are even 
incapable of self-direction and must be under the direction of 
employers who, in the language of Socialists, are exploiters. We 
believe the present system develops an individuality in men of 
average energy and ability and that this quality will be lacking 
under Socialistic reign. Since we are given different talents 
why should they be sunk in the maelstrom of mediocrity which 
must be engendered by loss of individuality"? 

"You ask why one should not have all his labor produces 
instead of his wage share of it. I would reply that if you were 
to quit your job tomorrow and set up a shop of your own and 
get all you earn it would go very well on a cash basis, but if 
Moran Bros, were to pay each man all his work produces where 
would they get the reserve to advance wage money each week 
pending the completion and acceptance of some gigantic piece 
of work ? Here is where capital serves you most admirably and 
you should appreciate the condition. If the government were 
doing the work there must be a reserve and there would be r 
but for the privilege of having individuals and corporations 
decapitalized you have to surrender the privilege of gauging the 
degree of your personal liberty and personal choice in providing 
yourself and dependents with any but the average and ordinary 
comforts which neither distinguish, nor satisfy aspiration. 



8 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

Not being able to realize more than ordinary comforts yon will 
become ordinary in habits, energy and culture. 

"Men are paid, and under any system, will be paid ac- 
cording to the quality of work they do. Under government 
©wnership there must be expert managers and supernumeraries 
whose compensation will take more from the earnings of a la- 
borer than employers and managers are now receiving. The 
specialist and the expert will not apply his talent for the allow- 
ance made the craftsman and the clerk. It is insolent presump- 
tion for a diffident workman to put himself at an equal financial 
value with the tireless and self-sacrificing manager. If 'G' will 
explain, or if Socialism can propose some plan of differentiation 
we shall take our first step in its comprehension. When the ad- 
vocates of Socialism will outline a system and clear away such 
rubbish as the cry against monopolies and injustice which we 
all deplore we will be able to listen intelligently. We have lis- 
tened to renowned lecturers and we have only heard the cry 
of injustice, wrong and capitalist as if such rage constituted a 
philosophic treatment of the subject. If Socialism is right 
there is a way to formulate and present it and the Church and 
the world will judge and approve or condemn it." 



A SOCIALISTS ANSWER TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 

The first objection to Socialism by the distinguished edi- 
tor, is that one of its principles is to denounce the Church and 
all religion. I will say that I have watched the movement of 
Socialism for fifteen years; I have read a great deal of their 
propaganda; I have attended and read their various lectures; 
I have watched their various State and National conventions, 
nor have I heard one word from any Socialist of any standing 
that was derogatory or disrespectful of any Church. It is true 
that some Socialists are opposed to the Catholic Church and 
some are opposed to all churches, but you will find the same* 
in the Republican party, the Democratic party and every other 
party. The Socialists are not opposed to churches on account 
of their Christian teaching, but on account of the stand they 
have taken against the Socialist movement. The Social- 
ist co-operative theory is just as moral and as Christ-like as 
our present competitive cut-throat system. The Catholic 
Church is one of the greatest co-operative institutions in the 
world. From His Holiness, the Pope, to the least one in the 
service of that great organization, all are under one head. 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 9 

The thousands of men and women engaged in the noble work, 
the uplifting of humanity, are not worrying about their indi- 
viduality. They sacrifice their lives for the good of the whole ; 
that is Socialism. 

The second objection the distinguished editor has to the 
Socialist movement was that the local exponent of the system 
could not give him a tangible idea of how he proposed to run 
things. Between the best known local exponent, who admitted 
that he never had a fixed plan, and the distinguished editor, 
who from the drift of his remarks could not possibly have given 
the subject a rational thought, there is not likely to arise a 
philosophy that will command the respect of any thinking man. 

The third objection that the distinguished editor has to 
Socialism is, that it would destroy American enterprise and in- 
dustry. Yes, it will destroy corporate greed, frenzied finance, 
political rot and the prostituted press ; all other industries will 
be stimulated. The distinguished editor thinks that Socialism 
would inflict upon us a race of time serving and indifferent 
men. I would ask the distinguished gentleman what we have 
now. I think it a very reasonable estimate that ninety per 
cent of the wealth of this country is produced by time servers 
under this present system, and why would they be any more 
indifferent under co-operation, where every individual would 
have a say in the matter, than they would under a task master? 
The distinguished editor believes that all men are not born 
equal in talent, and that some are incapable of self-direction 
and must be under the direction of some employer who, in the 
language of the Socialist, are exploiters. The Socialists do not 
call employers exploiters because they employ men, but be- 
cause they take more than their share of the profits, nor will 
they employ any man, competent or incompetent, unless they 
can make a profit out of him. There are very few men so in- 
competent that there would not be some place in a large system 
that he could fill just as well as the superintendent fills his, and 
that is the beauty of co-operation. 

The distinguished editor believes that the present system 
develops an individuality in men of average ability. Are you 
aware, Mr. Editor, that individuality in production is practiced 
only by the most primitive savage who builds his own hut, kills 
his own game, makes his own clothes, his own canoe, and his 
own fish line and cooks his own food? When he adopts any 
one of those occupations and exchanges with his neighbor for 
any or all of the other commodities, his commercial individ- 
uality ceases. He then becomes Socialistic or co-operative. 
This is the first step in commercial evolution. In regard to 
energy, Mr. Editor, there was a time when consumption pressed 



10 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

so hard against production that incentive was necessary, but 
now our panics are caused by over-production. 

The . distinguished editor thinks we should not have our 
talent sunk in the maelstrom of mediocrity, which must be en- 
gendered by the loss of individuality. Admitting if that should 
be the case, it would not be as disastrous as to have our en- 
ergies and abilities merged in and monopolized by corporate 
greed. The distinguished editor when asked why one should 
not have all his labor produced, instead of his wage share of 
it, replied that if you were to quit your job and set up a shop 
of your own and get all you earned, it would go very well on 
a cash basis ; but if the Moran Brothers were to pay each man 
all his work produces, where would he get the reserve to ad- 
vance wage money each week pending the completion and ac- 
ceptance of some gigantic piece of work. 

Now, Mr. Editor, do you think it was necessary or even 
possible, that Moran Brothers had three millions in their pock- 
ets when they took the contract to build the Nebraska? If 
so, they would never have built the boat. Now, Mr. Editor, 
they are not doing business that way. When Moran Brothers 
secured that contract the money was deposited in some bank 
subject to their draft as the work progressed each month, less 
a small percentage that was held back to guarantee faithful 
compliance of the contract. The money that built that boat 
was nothing more or less than the people's promise to pay. 
Moran Brothers did not even furnish experience to build this 
boat. The government furnished an expert and paid his wages, 
and Moran Brothers applied the profits to their own use. You 
say if the government was doing the work there must be a re- 
serve, and there would be. That is true even for co-operation ; 
if you build war ships there must be. The war ship is destruct- 
ive and a waste of energy, and there can be enough of the peo- 
ple's energy wasted so their promises to. pay would be no 
good. On the other hand, if you take three million dollars and 
irrigate several thousand acres of land and increase the value 
from one dollar to thirty, you would have something tangible 
to base your promise to pay on. In addition say, but for the 
privilege of having individuals and corporations decapital- 
ized you have to surrender the privilege of gauging the degree 
of your personal liberty and your personal choice in provid- 
ing yourself and dependents with any but the average and 
ordinary comforts which neither distinguish nor satisfy aspira- 
tions. The capital of individuals and corporations is their 
promise to pay, the same as the government, and cannot be de- 
stroyed except by repudiation, but the profits of individuals 
and corporations can be taken by others and appropriated to 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 11 

their own use, as in the case of the Government vs. the Moran 
Brothers. 

There are various degrees of liberty: There is the liberty 
of conscience, political and and the liberty that the hold-up man 
wants to protect him in his graft. There are also various stages 
of aspirations, from the man who is content with what . he 
fairly earns to the gentlemen who are now figuring so conspic- 
uously in Frenzied Finance. Co-operation will gauge and keep 
a safety valve on both. The distinguished editor says that men 
are paid, and under any system will be paid, according to the 
quality of work they do : that will be the case in co-operation. 
They will put man's time before the quality of work. This 
quality of work arises from that false delusion that some kinds 
of work is degrading. The man who digs and helps to build 
a sewer is just as good as the doctor who pounds pills, and his 
services are just as important to society; the man who cleans 
the street is just as necessary to the people as the cashier in 
the bank ; the man who shovels and helps to build a railroad is 
just as necessary as the editor in his chair. But then, you will 
say that the experience of the doctor cost more than the man 
who works on the sewer. Under Socialism the government 
would stand the expense, therefore he could make no extra de- 
mands. 

You say, Mr. Editor, that under government ownership 
there must be expert managers and supernumeraries whose 
compensation will take more of the earnings of the laborer than 
the employers and managers are now receiving. Now, Mr. 
Editor, imagine a thousand or ten thousand men in some co- 
operative concern sitting down and voting to have several hun- 
dred supernumeraries appointed and paid that they would have 
no use for. But, Mr. Editor, what about the supernumeraries 
under this present competitive system? What about the mil- 
lion tramps our present system has produced? He eats and 
wears clothes and produces nothing, therefore he is a parasite 
on the laboring man. What about the supernumeraries in the 
shape of three or four hundred gamblers in this city, Mr. Edi- 
tor ? They are parasites on the laboring man. What about the 
three thousand saloon men in this city? If that business was 
run by the government by establishing government dispensar- 
ies, one to every five thousand population, as in South Caro- 
lina, we could dispense with twenty-nine hundred supernum- 
eraries. What about the six hundred physicians in the city, 
Mr. Editor? If we had the co-operative law of Australia, where 
the doctor's wages raise as the health of the community rises, 
and falls as the health of the community decreases, that law 
in Seattle would drive out two-thirds of the profession, and 



12 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

that would be four hundred more supernumeraries. There are 
six hundred of the best average talent in the legal profession 
in this city; the co-operative plan would dispense with two- 
thirds of them. There are three or four hundred real estate 
men in this city ; under co-operation we could dispense with all 
of them. Then, again, throughout this country there are a 
number of weekly papers and pamphlets and monthly maga- 
zines. Admitting that they give value received, all this could 
be done co-operatively, or even on the scale as the big dailies are 
operated, with at least one-half the labor and time that is now 
expended, and that would relieve society of more supernumer- 
aries, and the same would be the case all down the line. 

The distinguished editor thinks it would be an insolent 
presumption for a diffident workman to put himself at an equal 
financial value with the tireless and self-sacrificing manager. 
In the review of human conditions we must not base our opin- 
ions on isolated or individual action, but give our decision on 
the sum total. Now, Mr. Editor, the sum total of those insolent 
workingmen you refer to : Statistics show that the workingmen 
of the country produce fifteen billions of dollars in one year. 
The workingman has furnished all the eatables that you can 
think of; he has made all the clothes you need; he has built 
railroad Pullman cars and floating palaces to cross the sea; 
he has built houses and palaces ; he has already made and keeps 
on hand all that the human mind can crave. I will ask you, 
Mr. Editor, if you think there is anything he has left undone? 
If you can't say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant?" 

That the co-operative system leaves neither opportunity 
nor incentive for dishonesty is my unprejudiced opinion and 
firm belief after fifteen years, more or less, careful study of this 
question. 

I am aware that such ideas are very unpopular with the 
average man, who regards such ideas as wild and airy delusions ; 
but it makes no matter what my ideas or any other man 's ideas 
may be on the church's belief. There is no man, no church, 
no party that can stop scientific evolution. There are forces 
behind this theory all over the civilized world. There are 10,- 
000,000 votes behind that theory, all having the same ideas, the 
same thoughts. There can be but one correct theory, just as 
there can be but one in any other science. How many differ- 
ent theories are there in the competitive system? Almost as 
many as there are men. 

It is notorious that the world is tangled up on the two 
most essential theories now confronting it. The world is in a 
political and theological tangle, though they are as much a 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 13 

science as mathematics. Theology has its various ideas and 
systems, which are not, to say the least, harmonious. 

We have all to begin as dualists in the religion of love. 
God is to us a separate being, and we feel ourselves separate 
beings, also. Love then begins to appear and man begins to 
approach God, and God comes nearer to man. Man tears up all 
the various relationships of life, as father, as mother, as son, 
as friend, as master, as lover, and projects them on his ideas 
as love for his God. To him God exists in all things, and the 
last point of his progress is reached when he feels that he has 
become absolutely merged in the object of his worship. We 
all begin with love of ourselves and the unfair claims of our 
little selves make even love selfish. At last, however, comes 
the blaze of light in which this little self seems to become one 
with the Infinite. Man himself is transfigured in the presence 
of this light of love. His heart is cleansed of all impurities 
and vain desires of which it was more or less full, before, and 
he realizes at last the beautiful and inspiring truth that love, 
lover and the beloved are one. 

Yes, Mr. Editor, the laborer as well as nature has done 
his share, both together have made the world flow with milk 
and honey, but in the midst of this abundance we find dire want, 
particularly amongst those that have helped to create this 
great wealth. But the fault is not theirs ; it is the fault of un- 
even distribution. Distribution is controlled by that highly 
valued financial manager, "tireless and self-sacrificing." The 
profound sympathy that the distinguished editor has for this 
class of men must have originated from an overheated brain. 
According to the distinguished editor a great many of those 
captains of industry are very good men, but they generally 
come out of the deal with more than their share, and that is 
where the uneven distribution of wealth arises. We have had 
some recent experiences with those highly valued self-sacrific- 
ing managers in the state of Colorado. When the miners de- 
manded an eight hour day, a law which the state legislature 
had passed, and when the miners persisted in their demands 
the self-sacrificing managers undertook to drive them out of 
the state. The corporation organ of this city, referring to the 
enormous loss caused by the strikers, made the statement that 
the seven months of the strike then elapsed had cost the miners 
ten millions and had cost the mine owners in loss of profits 
thirty millions. Now, it would seem as though they could af- 
ford to cut down hours when they made that profit in seven 
months. 



14 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

CARNEGIE'S SHARE OF TWELVE YEARS' PROFITS. 

Twelve years ago Mr. Carnegie had his men shot down at 
Homestead because they asked a ten per cent rise. He went 
to Washington, persuaded our government to give him a forty 
per cent protective tariff that gave him a forty per cent raise 
on his product to be charged up to the people. At the end of 
twelve years Mr. Carnegie wound up business having for his 
services two hundred and ninety millions of dollars. 

Two years ago, when there was a strike at Pittsburg, 
those men who created all that wealth could not stand a six 
weeks ' strike. ■ He is now grunting around like a great sow, 
gorged with swill, begging everybody and everything to take 
a library, a university or let him help them in a political fight — 
any old thing that wants money. He is a fully developed case 
of your tireless, unselfish manager. 

The distinguished editor says if I will explain, or if Social- 
ism can propose some plan of differentiation, we shall take our 
first step towards its comprehension. The distinguished editor 
is like the man from Missouri. "Show me!" 

THE COMPETITIVE SYSTEM. 

The distinguished editor likewise says: "When the ad- 
vocates of Socialism will outline a system and clear away 
such rubbish as the cry against monopolies and injustice which 
we all deplore we will be able to listen intelligently." I would 
say, Mr. Editor, that if you were familiar with their propa- 
ganda you would know that they have already outlined a 
system. 

They might stop those cries against monopolies and injus- 
tice which you call rubbish. Yes, the gods might stop the 
wheels of evolution, so that you might be able to listen intelli- 
gently, if that would not mean indefinitely. You say you have 
listened to renowned lecturers and only heard cries of injustice, 
wrong and capitalists, as if such rage constituted a philosoph- 
ical treatment of the subject. Now, Mr. Editor, the first thing 
to learn is that our present system is thoroughly rotten, and 
the renowned lecturer knows that he must impress that strongly 
and thoroughly on the minds of the people. Then when they 
see the injustice and robbery they will throw it over. That is 
the part of the propaganda that you do not seem to compre- 
hend. This is rubbish, but it has to be cleared away. It is no 
part of the Socialist philosophy. The distinguished editor 
closes his remarks by saying that if Socialism is right there is 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 15 

a way to formulate and present it, so that the Church and the 
world will judge it and approve or condemn it. We will admit 
that the church government is much in advance of the com- 
petitive system, and it is not reasonable to suppose that she 
will condemn a system that she has successfully worked under 
for twenty centuries. When this commonwealth is governed 
by the same co-operative system as the Catholic church, they 
will be dangerously near to Socialism. The Church can not but 
see that the competitive system is directly and indirectly re- 
sponsible for seventy-five per cent of the present suffering and 
crime. One of the Church's grand teachings is brotherly love. 
You would find no more of the milk of human kindness in the 
competitive system than you might expect, relatively speaking, 
to drip from the soot sieves of Hell. 

The founder of the Christian religion was more radical 
than the Socialist. The Socialist demands that which he him- 
self earns ; Christ said to the rich man, ' ' Sell thy goods and 
give to the poor." and you say that the world wall approve 
or condemn. Whatever they condemn, they cannot very well 
approve the present system, where statistics show that ninety 
per cent of men and women in commercial business have made 
a failure. A man may be in the shoe business or any other busi- 
ness. His neighbor may be across the street in the same busi- 
ness. Now, there is no man on earth who is a more deadly 
enemy than this neighbor across the street. The two will lie 
and cut prices and w r ould cut one another's throats if they 
dared, and it is only a matter of time until some one goes to 
the wall. That is the result in all lines. You can take our two 
great daily papers in this city. By reading those papers you 
can see the deadly enmity more clearly, because they have the 
weapons to give their indignation more vent. And there is 
space occupied each day for the express purpose of throwing 
fresh and fragrant sewer bouquets at each other. 

Every day, Mr. Editor, we see men and women who w T ork 
hard eight to twelve hours per day. We see others who travel 
from place to place trying to find work. Every day we see 
young girls who leave home to find work in this city, where 
they have to work as waitresses in those restaurants, cafes and 
dives, where they come in contact with all kinds of degenerates 
and lustful brutes whose very presence is demoralizing and 
whose language pollutes the ears, and whose breath from 
strong drink and tobacco would stink a dog off a garbage 
wagon. Those young girls will be the mothers of part of the 
coming generation and should have some safeguard around 
them. 



16 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

NECESSARY EVIL. 

What are called necessary evils are another product of 
the present system. Dance houses, gambling hells and houses 
of prostitution are called necessary evils, and it is a noted fact 
that those institutions can not exist except where they are 
protected by the police. They would not be allowed on the 
outskirts of the city. They would not be allowed in the country 
or small towns. The people would rise and drive them out, 
and they would drive them from below the dead line if you 
remove the protection accorded them by the police. 

The young man may live all his life in the outlying dis- 
tricts and it will not be necessary to commit crime. But when 
he comes to the city he finds these institutions licensed, pro- 
tected and ready for business. Then it becomes a necessary 
evil. The lumber man comes in from the lumber camp; there 
are no crimes allowed there, but when he came to town crime 
became a necessary evil. The sailor comes in from a six months' 
voyage. The master would not allow any crime on his ship. 
The sailor got along all right without committing it until he got 
where crime was licensed and protected and became necessary. 
The miner came from the coal mine. The coal miners would 
not allow any degenerates around their coal mine. The miner 
would commit no crime while he was there. He would have to 
wait until he came to Seattle. 

Now what is the result of the necessary evil on those men ? 
They would return to their work with their manhood depraved, 
their bodies diseased and their pockets empty. Necessary evil 
reducio ad absurdum. 

I heard the statement made that the city last year re- 
ceived thirty-six thousand dollars from the licenses and fines 
of fallen women. I do not know what fund that was applied to ; 
perhaps to the school fund. Any way I suppose the taxpayers 
got the benefit. Now, Mr. Editor, do you know — can you con- 
ceive a man any lower than a man who lives off the earnings 
of a prostitute? I don't. How much better is the man that 
will rob her of the money that she sacrificed her soul and body 
for to pay his taxes or vote for such a policy ? There are some 
apparently very good Christians who are beneficiaries of this 
fund and vote for that policy. They sit up in the front pews 
and thank the all wise creator for "Republican prosperity." 

THE PRESS IN POLITICS. 

Part of the press of this city have prostituted their col- 
umns with the support and brazen profiles of men whose 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 17 

records on file at the court house if exhumed the stench would 
lower the social standing of a pimp or prostitute, if that were 
possible. 

Now, Mr. Editor, this is what you will style more rubbish. 
The corrupt politician, the tireless and self-sacrificing manager 
and their hired tools do not want to have their game exposed. 
They want the Socialists to go on talking scientific economy 
that ninety per cent of the people do not understand, and that 
would be subject to their criticism to approve or condemn. 

Mr. Editor, you pose as an educator and one of the great 
pillars of the Church, and your decision might have great 
weight with the people. But if you are no better posted on 
theology than you are on political economy, and as the Church 
is pretty heavy, she must not lean too hard on the "Progress;" 
it might not stand the mental strain. 

WHY SOME MEN ARE SOCIALISTS. 

We might support, vote for, and elect honest men and 
send them to Washington, but when they got there they would 
be decoyed by that false glare originating from foul gas gener- 
ated in the aristocratic sewer of corporate greed and modern 
imperialism. They are taken in charge by the leaders, fur- 
nished with a dog collar and whipped into line, and you will 
not see one bill introduced in the interest of the laboring man, 
who creates the wealth of this country, in the whole length of 
the session. Their time will be taken up by such bills as the 
subsidy bill, trying to grab millions out of the treasury to give 
to the shipping trust, which is already such a large monopoly 
that foreign countries tremble in their grasp. 

The present financial law on our statute books is nothing 
more or less than a three card monte game, and now, by the 
Fowler bill, they want to work Clancy on the little gamblers, 
by getting a percentage on all the games. These and other 
grafts will occupy their time for most of the session. 

Now, Mr. Editor, I will give some reasons why some men 
are in favor of Socialism. In the first place they have learned 
by sad experience that something is radically wrong. In the 
next place they began to study the question and discovered 
that political economy was a science, just as much a science as 
mathematics, chemistry, physics, electricity or navigation, and 
they learned that all those sciences were conducted by men 
who are expert, and they learned that the men engaged in 
political economy were not experts and had not studied 
science, and that the government had never been run on a sci- 
entific basis. 



18 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

SCIENTIFIC ECONOMY. 

Now, Mr. Editor, those men do not claim to be students 
or experts of that science. There are many who have read a 
great deal on the subject, but could not be experts or scientific 
without practical experience. The same obtains in any 
other science, and it will remain a theory until it is put into 
practice. But that does not prove that the science does not 
exist. Mathematics would be no use if you did not put it into 
practice. You might read about it all your life. Mathematics 
has a base — the multiplication table — twice two are four, twice 
two cannot be three nor five, that would destroy the science. 

Political economy, too, has a base. If a man works two 
days and creates ten dollars' worth and is paid four for it, that 
would destroy the science of political economy. You will say 
that he does not earn ten, but the statistics show that he earns 
ten and receives two. The laboring men being 100 per cent 
the producer and 90 per cent of the population, only gets 20 
per cent of what he produces. That leaves 80 per cent of the 
production to 10 per cent of the population, and when that be- 
comes more than they can squander it causes overproduction, 
or properly speaking, lack of consumption. This is a violation 
of the science or law of political economy. The result is the 
uneven distribution of wealth, and the ultimate result is that 
83 per cent of the wealth is owned by 25 per cent of the popula- 
tion. 

Now, Mr. Editor, for an illustration we will take the post- 
office, under government ownership. The net revenue from 
postage would represent the accumulated wealth of all the 
people. What the postoffice earns is appropriated to run that 
department and can be raised or lowered, according to income. 
That is no more nor less than justice to that department, and 
there is where scientific economy comes in. 

Now, Mr. Editor, we have a water system in this city run 
by the city. That plant, under present water rates, earned 
$36,000 the last year over and above operating expenses. The 
people who pay 75 per cent of this tax do not own the property, 
and this $36,000 is turned to pay other taxes where that 75 
per cent have no interest. Mr. Daulton, a councilman of this 
city, has tried to introduce some honest scientific economy by 
recommending that the water rate be lowered to the amount 
necessary to run the plant, but the power behind the council 
think that would be giving the common people too much. 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 19 

THE PROSTITUTE FUND. 

They do not like that scientific way of doing business. 
They do not like the Socialist because he talks too much about 
science and is giving away the graft. 

Our schools, city, county, state and the national are under 
the Socialistic or scientific law to a certain extent, and the prin- 
cipal is all right, except when as in the case of the city water, 
plant, it is disturbed by individual or selfish greed, or by dis- 
honest employes. But government ownership will never be a 
scientific success until all departments and all business is done 
by co-operation. Under scientific management there will be 
no incentive to be dishonest or to be selfish. 

You will say that you cannot make laws that will make man 
perfect. Granted. But you can take away his incentive to 
steal or be dishonest. Necessity creates 90 per cent of the crim- 
inals. The habit once formed, though necessity ceases, they 
will steal. There are some cases where it would almost seem 
justifiable to steal. Where a man has a family suffering for 
the necessaries of life on one hand and extravagance and waste 
on the other. When a man made this first step, conscience gets 
strained to the full tension. This is the point where you will 
have to apply science to steer him through. The incentive to 
stimulate energy I referred to in a previous page, and we 
found that it was not necessary for any further stimulation of 
energy. The problem to solve is what to do with the over- 
production. In order to get a market for that immense ac- 
cumulation, we make war on eight million weak and inoffensive 
people, who have struggled for two hundred years for their 
independence, that we may dump our over-accumulated wealth 
on their shores. A war that cost the taxpayers six hundred 
and some odd million of dollars, a great portion of which was 
stolen and squandered by men who do not believe in scientific 
economy. They do not believe in Socialism. No, Mr. Editor, 
they believe in manifest destiny. They believe that the gods 
of war are with the aggressor who has the heaviest artillery. 
The Japanese-Russian war today is not to seize territory, but 
to get an outlet for their surplus. 

There is the business man that is worth all the wav from 
$100,000 to $600,000,000. You will say they would not be 
satisfied if they were checked in their mad career. We might 
let them go on if they would ever get satisfied. But you see 
that the man who has the $600,000,000 is making more desper- 
ate strides than the man who has not the wherewith to pay 
next week's board. 

If the poor man should get broke and could not pay his 



20 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

board the law of this state would put him behind the bars. If 
the man with $600,000,000 should steal $36,000,000, as in the 
Amalgamated deal, he would go scot free. You will say that 
all rich men do not steal. Neither are they satisfied. So you 
see that the present system is not sound. If a man is not satis- 
fied with a just, scientific and economic distribution of his 
share of what he produces, he will not be satisfied at any stage 
of the game. Now there are a great many rich business men 
'who work very hard in nerve and brain work, and pass sleep- 
less nights. In fact, some break down their health, having 
more business than they can attend to. But that is injustice 
to themselves.- The world does not ask it, nor under sound con- 
ditions would they need it. General managers and captains of 
industry get large salaries, not because they produce more 
themselves, but because they work other men harder for longer 
hours and less pay. And, on the other hand, force up the price 
of goods. This creates both over-production and lack of con- 
sumption, which in turn causes our periodical panics. Such 
men do not sacrifice anything for society. They only sacrifice 
their health, their honor, and their manhood. All society would 
ask of them would be to earn their living and adopt conditions 
that would keep them from taking what belonged to others, 
and can only be produced by co-operation. 

People have a right to make laws that will protect them- 
selves. Where that is not an injustice to others, but a benefit 
to them. A shoe manufacturer in Massachusetts told his work- 
men that he ran his own business, but they showed him that 
ten thousand men had something to do with a box of shoes, 
while his part was to take the lion's share of the profits when 
it got to the strong box. The same may be said of every line 
of business, great and small, under individual ownership. 

WHY MEN ARE WEDDED TO THE PRESENT SYSTEM. 

Some men are strongly wedded to the present system, ex- 
pecting to leave their children each a fortune. Today there is 
no greater calamity for the country than rich men's sons. Of 
course, there are some exceptions. The men of today are self- 
made men, and the daughter of the poor man will be the mother 
of the coming generation. To depend on the rich man's daugh- 
ter would be race suicide. Our great rush and nerve-wrecking 
chase for wealth is creating a degenerate race. You will find 
children in the shanty and small cottages, but very few in the 
palaces of the rich. The latest fad is when the father becomes 
a millionaire the mother goes to Europe and spreads her drag- 
net to catch a lord or count. If she succeeds she will come 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 21 

back with something that is physically degenerated and morally 
bankrupt, decked out with cheap title, badges and old gold 
braid, looking like an organ grinder's monkey and with about 
as much brain as a chimpanzee. 

Now, Mr. Editor, you know all the conditions we have 
cited are nothing more or less than subsistence. The most in- 
significant grub worm lives his allotted time, just the same "as 
you or I, and when man's time is wholly taken up with merely 
supplying the wants of the body, he can be no better than the 
lower animal. Some are forced to that condition by the hard 
struggle for existence. Others, having too much of the world's 
goods, take all their time to look after them or in reckless dissi- 
pation. Now, there is a place between those two extremes 
where economic science will place him. Where the work he 
is compelled to do will be no more than will be necessary for 
good health. Then, Mr. Editor, he can get where he is destined 
to be ; that is, above the animal. God has placed us above the 
animal and has given us a bountiful earth, which, governed 
scientifically, will give time to study the higher arts and the 
higher life. This will be life in the line of least resistance. All 
men are seeking happiness, but are seeking it in the wrong di- 
rection. We are looking down into the mud and slime of life, 
and can never see Paradise with a hell-diver's eyes. 

Of all the sciences, political economy is that which to the 
civilized men of today is of most practical importance. It is 
the science that treats of the nature of wealth and the laws 
of its production and distribution. That is to say, the mat- 
ters which absorb the larger part of the thought and effort of 
the vast majority of us — the getting of a living. It includes 
in its domain the greater part of those vexing questions which 
lie at the bottom of politics and legislation of our social and 
governmental theories, and even in a larger measure than at 
first supposed of our philosophies and religions. It is the sci- 
ence to which must belong the solving of problems, that at the 
close of the century of the greatest material and scientific de- 
velopments that the world has ever seen, confronts all civilized 
countries, clouding the horizon of the future. It is the only 
science that can enable our civilization to escape the now 
threatening catastrophy. Important and surpassing as the 
science is, he who today would form clear and sure ideas of 
what it really teaches must form them for himself. For there 
is no one of accepted, truth, no consensus of recognized author- 
ity that he may accept without question. In all other branches 
of knowledge properly called science, the inquirer may find 
certain fundamentals recognized by all and disputed by no 
recognized authority which he may safely take to embody the 



22 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

information and experience of his time. Despite its long culti- 
vation and the multitude of its professors, he can not yet find 
this in political economy. If he accepts the teaching of one 
writer or one school, it will be to find it denied by other writers 
and other schools. This is not merely true of the more complex 
and delicate questions, but of primary questions. Even on 
matters such as in other sciences have long been settled, he 
who today looks for the guidance of general acceptance in po- 
litical economy will find a chaos of discordant opinions. So 
far, indeed, are first principles from being agreed upon that it 
is still a matter of dispute whether protection or free trade is 
most conducive to prosperity — a question that in political econ- 
omy should be capable of a decisive answer. This is not for 
want of what passes for systematic study. Not only are no 
subjects so widely and frequently discussed as those that 
come within the province of political economy, but every uni- 
versity and college has its professor of the science whose spe- 
cial business is to study and teach it. But nowhere are in- 
adequacy and confusion more apparent than in the writings 
of these men. Nor is anything so likely to give the impression 
that there is not and can not be real science in political econ- 
omy. But while the discord shows that he who would really 
acquaint himself with political economy can not rely on au- 
thority, there is nothing in it to discourage the hope that he 
who will use his own reason in the honest search for truth may 
attain firm and clear conclusions. 

In the supreme practical importance of political economy 
we may see the reason that has kept and still keeps it in dis- 
pute and has prevented the growth of accepted and assured 
opinions. Under existing conditions in the civilized world, 
and the great struggle among men for the possession of wealth, 
would it be irrational to expect that the science that treats of 
the production and the distribution of wealth should be exempt 
from the influence of that struggle? Macaulay has well said 
that if any large pecuniary interest were concerned in a dis- 
pute the attraction of gravitation — the most obvious of all 
facts — would not be accepted. What then can we look for in 
the teaching of a science which directly concerns the most 
powerful of vested rights which deal with rent and wages and 
interest, with taxes and tariffs, with privileges and franchises 
and subsidies, with currency and land tenures and public debts, 
with the ideas upon which trades unions are based and the 
pleas by which combinations of capitalists are defended. 
Economic truth under existing conditions has not merely to 
overcome the inertia of indolence and habit, but is in its very 
nature subject to suppression and distortion from the influ- 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 23 

ences of the most powerful and virulent interests. It has not 
merely to make its way, but must stand continually on guard. 
It can not be trusted to any selected body of men for the same 
reasons the powers of making laws and administering public 
affairs can not be so trusted. 

It is especially true today that all large political questions 
are at the bottom of economic questions. There are thus in- 
troduced into the study of political economy the same disturb- 
ing elements which have set men by the ears over the study of 
theology, writing in blood a long page in the world's history, 
and that at one time at least so affected the study of astron- 
omy as to prevent the authoritative recognition of the earth's 
movements around the sun, long after its demonstration. The 
organization of political parties, the pride of place and power 
which they arouse, and the strong prejudices which they kin- 
dle, are always inimitable to the search of truth and to the ac- 
ceptance of truth. And while colleges and universities and 
similar institutions, though ostensibly organized for careful 
investigation and the honest promulgation of truth, are not 
and can not be exempt from influences that disturb the study 
of political economy, they are especially precluded under pres- 
ent conditions from faithful and adequate treatment of that 
science. For, in the present social conditions of the civilized 
world nothing is clearer than that there is some deep and wide- 
spread wrong in the distribution, if not in the production of 
wealth. This is the office of political economy to disclose, and 
a really faithful and honest application of science must dis- 
close it. But no matter what that injustice may be, colleges 
and universities, as at present conducted, are by the very 
law of their being precluded from discovering or revealing it. 
For, no matter what may be the nature of this injustice, the 
wealthy class must relatively at least profit by it, and their 
views and wishes dominate in colleges and universities. 

While slavery was yet strong, we might have looked in vain 
to the colleges and universities and accredited organs of edu- 
cation and opinions in our Southern States, and, indeed, in the 
North, for any admission of its injustice, so under present con- 
ditions we must look in vain to such sources for any faithful 
treatment of political economy. Whoever accepts from them 
a chair of political economy must do so under the implied stip- 
ulation that he will not really find what it is his professional 
business to look for. Yet, if political economy be the one 
science that can not 'safely be left to specialists, the one science 
that is needful for all to know something of, it is also the sci- 
ence which the ordinary man may most easily study. It re- 
quires no tools, no apparatus, no special learning. The phe- 



24 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

nomena to be investigated need not be sought for in laborator- 
ies or libraries ; they lie about us and are constantly thrust upon 
us. The principles on which it builds are truths of which we 
are all-conscious and on which in every-day matters we con- 
stantly base our reasoning and our actions. And in its study, 
which consists mainly in analysis, requires only care in distin- 
guishing what is essential from what is merely accidental. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE TERMS USED IN POLITICAL 
ECONOMY. 

Men may honestly be in ignorance of astronomy, of chem- 
istry, of geology, of physiology, and really feel their ignorance ; 
but few men honestly confess an ignorance of political economy. 
Though they may admit, or even proclaim ignorance, they do 
not really feel it. There are many who claim they know noth- 
ing of political economy, many indeed who do not know what 
the term means ; yet these very ones hold at the same time, and 
with the utmost confidence, opinions on matters that belong to 
political economy — such as the causes which affect wages and 
prices and profits and the effect of tariffs, the influence of labor- 
saving machinery, the functions and the proper substance of 
money, the reason of hard times or good times, and so on. For 
men living in society, which is the natural way for men to live, 
must have some sort of politico-economic theories, good or bad, 
right or wrong. The way to make sure that these theories are 
correct, or, if not correct, to supplant them with true ones, is 
by a systematic and careful investigation. To such an investi- 
gation there is one thing so necessary, one thing of such pri- 
mary and constant importance, that it can not too soon and too 
strongly be urged upon our minds. It is that in attempting 
to study political economy we should first of all and at 
every step make sure of the meaning of - the words which 
we use as its terms, so that when we use them they will always 
have for us the same meaning. Words are the signs or tokens 
by which in speech or writing we communicate our thoughts 
to one another. It is only as we attach a common meaning to 
words that we are able to communicate with one another by 
speech. To understand one another with precision it is neces- 
sary that each attach precisely the same meaning to the same 
word. Words, however, are more than the means by which 
Ve communicate thoughts. There are also signs or tokens in 
which we ourselves think — the tablets of the thought drawers 
or pigeonholes in which we stow away the various ideas that 
we often mentally deal with by label. Thus we can not think 
with precision unless in our own minds we use words with pre- 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 25 

cision. Failure to do this is a great cause of the existence and 
persistence of economic fallacies. 

In all studies it is important that we should attach definite 
meanings to the terms we use, but this is especially important 
in political economy. In other studies most of the words used, 
as terms, are peculiar to that study, while the terms used in 
political economy are not words reserved to it alone. They are 
words used in every-day life which the necessities of daily life 
constantly require us to give to and accept for a different 
meaning than the economic. 

The most eminent writers on political economy confuse 
themselves, as well as their readers, by the vague use of terms, 
such as wealth, values, capital, land, labor, rent, interest, money, 
and tools of production, international commerce, and a thou- 
sand other factors, which is like referring to all things that 
mathematics is applied to, to get the principle of that science. 
You can go to any library and load a dray with all kinds of 
theories, since Adam Smyth wrote "The Wealth of Nations" 
and John Stewart Mill wrote "International Commerce." 

They have all tried to get a science out of a competitive 
system, but they have no base to work from. The very word 
itself means trouble. It means one man against the other all 
the way through. It means to get all you can, devil take the 
hindmost. That is not science, nor God's law. It is war. 

THE CARDINAL PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Political economy is based on four cardinal principles: 
Truth, justice, the greatest good to the greatest number, and 
the greatest result from the least exertion. 

The competitive system violates and is diametrically op- 
posed to all four. The competitive system, claiming to be an 
honest system, or science, is a plain lie on the face of it. That 
it is not justice is proved by the uneven distribution of wealth. 
That it is not the greatest good to the greatest number is evi- 
dent when we find 83 per cent of the wealth of this country 
in the hands of 25 per cent of the people. The greatest good 
to the greatest number can be obtained only by the co-operation 
of the whole. 

This is the most critical point of political economy, and 
we will have to feel our way carefully. Here is where all writ- 
ers on political economy, as it were, left the track. To launch 
into this science we must have truth on our side. We can not 
stand on a false bottom, and we see that the old system will 
not hold water. It violates the first principle of political econ- 
omy. It violates the moral law. Science must have the truth, 
the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 



26 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

The next cardinal principle of political economy is justice. 
There is no end to the moral literature, and ethics, and law 
libraries on this subject, but we will simmer it down to "Thou 
shalt not steal. ' ' You must not steal a quarter of a mill. 
Why? Because it violates the law of political economy. That 
is not much of a steal, but it violates the principle. By the 
science of mathematics you could take all the wealth of this 
country in the shape of money and bonds and negotiable paper 
running up into the hundred billions of dollars belonging to 
twenty million people, in various sums from 10 cents to $100,- 
000,000, run it through a clearing house, and every one would 
get his share to a cent. If any one was short one cent the law 
of mathematics would be violated. Political economy can be 
worked on the same principle. When we get ready to apply 
it, the people can start at a given time and of all the wealth 
they will create in six months or a year each one will get his 
share. The books will balance to a cent. If they did not, as 
in mathematics, where it was short one cent the science would 
be wrongly applied, the books would not balance.. The loss of 
one cent by the theft or error in the unit column might be 
overlooked, but if that figure was changed in the hundred col- 
umn or in the thousand column or in the million column it 
would have to be all gone over. The book must balance to a 
cent or it would not be true mathematical science. 

This science can be applied to political economy by the 
aid of mathematics, but this science can not be applied to the 
competitive system. We will have to adopt what is termed the 
co-operative commonwealth. 

But you will say there are great objections to that system. 
Yes, that is true, but the objections come from the beneficiaries 
of the present system and men who are ignorant of political 
economy and expect some time to be beneficiaries. He expects 
some time to get into a position where he can- live without work- 
ing, by living off some one else's labor. Those are the men 
who are creating the most trouble at present. There is the 
tramp, the gambler, and all kinds of criminals and get-rich- 
quick men, all parasites on the laboring man. But a thousand 
such are not as big a load to the man who creates the wealth 
as one of those over-energetic captains of industry who will not 
be satisfied even when he gets to be a Morgan, a Rockefeller, 
or a Carnegie. 

HOW SOCIALISM WOULD ARRANGE THE VARIOUS 
CLASSES OF MEN. 

The next thing is to know what to do. In the first place 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 27 

we will take all the men in this country and put them in four 
classes. For illustration, we will put the whole number at 
ten and we will make four divisions of that ten. The over- 
energetic man will be one of that ten. There will be seven la- 
boring men, who are the main brawn and muscle of this coun- 
try. There will be one weakling, who is of that class of men 
who always lag behind, and one, the tramp, crook and the like. 
Now we have these four elements to deal with. How shall 
we work them? There is just one way the co-operative com- 
monwealth can scientifically proceed, and that is to take the 
first man who is the most serious trouble. He will want to give 
vent to his great energy, and will tell you that the system is go- 
ing to ruin his great incentive. He is one of those self-sacrific- 
ing men who want the earth. His whole ambition is to make 
a great show in the world, and if he will stop to look over the 
commercial records he will find that 90 per cent of the men and 
women who started out with his ideas have gone to the wall, 
and he will find wrecks and broken hearts all along the line; 
but he relies on his* own cunning. That cunning that Mr. 
Roosevelt referred to in his speech two years ago at the Min- 
neapolis exposition when, referring to conditions, he said that 
the time had come when we would have to shackle cunning as 
we once did power. 

This man would have the place in the co-operative system 
that he was best fitted for. A place where he would not have 
to work hard, where every man would have to do his share, not 
to work more than four hours each day. The balance of the 
day he could spend in pleasure, or in a study of the higher 
life, and when he went to rest he could enjoy a peaceful slum- 
ber, knowing that his wants were secure and his family would 
be provided for even if he was called to where the competitive 
system never had any territory. 

The next division is the laboring man. The class that 
produces the wealth. The class that carries all the burdens. The 
parasites will do anything in the world for him but get off his 
back. He is the man there will be the least trouble with. He 
has nothing to lose but his chains. He is ready to accept what 
is his due and throw off the leeches. 

They are drilling' in squads; they are forming new com- 
panies every day. There are sixty-three unions in this city 
today getting ready for the co-operative system. They are the 
power behind the throne. 

The third division constitutes a class of men comprising 
1 per cent. By common phrase they may be called men who do 
not hold their own. They may be physically weak, or they may 



28 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

be mentally weak, or they may be both. They are not of that 
class who form unions, but more of what the union man calls 
scabs. In all large systems there is always some place where 
those men may be placed, where they serve as well as a first- 
class man. There are superintendents of railroads who would 
make very poor brakemen. There are children now tending 
machines that do work that was once done by muscular men 
and constant brain work. Alden J. Blethen, the enterprising 
editor of "The Times," has in his press room a Hoe press 
that will do as much work in one day, with one man oiling and 
one boy carrying off papers, as 6,000 men could do with the old- 
time press of fifty years ago. We have not so much need of 
that nerve and muscle as was needed years ago. Co-operation 
will care for those men and place them where they will support 
themselves and be useful to society. The competitive system 
crowds them out and leaves them to suffer and become depend- 
ents or criminals. 

There would be places for the rest, and if they would not 
work, neither would they eat. 

We will now take up the third cardinal principle of polit- 
ical economy : The greatest good to the greatest number. Its 
function is the even distribution of wealth, and it is opposed 
to all customs now in practice and all laws that create the un- 
even distribution of wealth. The greatest factor in the uneven 
distribution of wealth is the private ownership of land. All 
the way from a twenty-five foot lot to the Northern Pacific land 
grant, 17,000 square miles, equal in area to the states of Michi- 
gan, Delaware and New Jersey. To show to what an extent 
private or corporate interests may go, to what means they 
will resort, it will be necessary here to give a brief history of 
two trans-continental railroads, the Northern Pacific and the 
Great Northern railroads. 

HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

Back in the sixties, after the Union Pacific was completed 
and it was demonstrated that our government could be worked 
for big subsidies, there was a plan concocted at Washington to 
build the Northern Pacific railroad. The deal was engineered 
by James G. Blaine and Governor Smith of Vermonth. There 
were others, but these were the leading spirits. They tried 
hard to get a subsidy, but our members of Congress were a 
little scared, as they had done some coarse work on the Union 
Pacific. They finally succeeded in getting a grant of every 
other section of land twenty miles wide from Lake Superior to 
Puget Sound. They issued bonds and the deal was financed. 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 29 

by Jay Cooke. The bonds were put on the market at 90 cents, 
par value $1.00. The bonds were secured by road and rolling- 
stock, or you could take land at $2.50 per acre, par value, 
and the land was to secure the bonds in case anything might 
happen the road. Those bonds were considered gilt-edge all 
through the east. They sold to old men and old women and 
old maids. They flooded the country and got millions to build 
the road. In 1872 they built the road to the Red river. And 
the drawing of such a large amount of money from the east 
was one of the causes of the panic of 1873. With the failure 
of J. Cooke the money received for bonds was squandered and 
the road went into the hands of a receiver. There was then a 
company formed called the Lake Superior & Puget Sound Land 
Company. This was a wheel within a wheel. They sold the 
road and bid it in themselves. That let the bondholders out, 
but they had the land left. About that time General Hazen 
was sent by the land department at Washington to report on 
the lands along the line of the Northern Pacific railroad. His 
report was that the land from Lake Superior to the Red river 
was a howling wilderness and that from the Red river to the 
Rocky Mountains was a desert plain. The crossing of the 
Rocky Mountains was a physical impossibility. From the 
Rockies to the Cascades was a desert of sand and sage brush. 
That report knocked the bonds and down they went to 17 cents. 
The Lake Superior Land Company bought them up with the 
money they got for the bonds in the first place and had 73 
cents left. That amounted to more than the road sold for at 
receiver's sale, so you see they had the road and the land for 
turning the deal. 

HISTORY OF THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILROAD. 

About that time J. J. Hill, now president of the Great 
Northern Railroad Company, who for energy and push has no 
equal in railroad circles in two continents, then in the employ 
of the Mississippi Steamboat Company, got the idea of the 
great amount of profit there was in the transportation business. 
He formed a partnership with Mr. Kitson of St. Paul, a man of 
some means, and built two boats on the Red river which ran 
from Fargo to Winnipeg in connection with the Northern Pa- 
cific railroad, which was a great success financially, and gave 
Mr. Hill his first start. 

The St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba railroad was swept 
off its feet in the panic of 1873, and the false report of the ter- 
ritory through which it ran stopped emigration for about four 
years. The St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba railroad was 



30 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

built to the Red river, but was only operated part of the way. 
Mr. Hill conceived the idea of picking up that wreck. He went 
to Montreal, laid the case before Donald Smyth and Stevenson, 
bankers of that city, who thought favorably of the scheme 
and furnished money to buy enough bonds of that road to give 
them control. At that time the bonds were selling at 12 cents. 
They equipped the road complete to Red river at a cost of one 
million dollars. They then built north to Manitoba and west 
to Devils Lake in North Dakota. The development of north- 
ern Minnesota and the Red River valley proved the absurdity 
of General Hazen's official report, and the sway of empire was 
once more westward. When the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Man- 
itoba was completed to Devils Lake it cost the company seven 
millions of dollars. Through the immense emigration, the rich 
soil and the energy and thrift of the settlers and shrewd man- 
agement of Mr. Hill it was enabled to pay 40 per cent on that 
amount. 

At this stage Mr. Hill conceived the idea of a Pacific ter- 
minal. He went to London and laid his plans before some 
London bankers, who, like the Montreal bankers, thought well 
of it and loaned him twenty-one millions of dollars, which con- 
summated Mr. Hill's sublime dream by tunneling the Cascades 
and under the City of Seattle. And by all reports it will be 
no more than justice to say that there is not a road of any note 
built in this country with as little misplaced energy, misplaced 
capital or misplaced confidence as the Great Northern. 

This brief history of these two roads we will use for refer- 
ence and giving us light on the present system. 

WHO CREATES THE VALUE IN REAL ESTATE? 

The third cardinal principle of political economy — the 
greatest good to the greatest number — is violated when we give 
to a corporation 17,000 square miles, or 10,540,000 acres of land. 
But the history of the Northern Pacific shows that it did not 
go to build that road, and the history of the Great Northern 
goes to show that it was not needed. That land was stolen, 
from the people, and a great part of it has been sold back to 
them at prices ranging from two and one-half to one hundred 
dollars per acre, and they have enough left today in rich farm- 
ing land, timber land, mineral land, and coal land to build the 
road twice over. Not only the Northern Pacific grant, but 
millions more in the hands of other corporations and individuals 
that were bought up at small figures, and when the farmer or 
laboring man want to use them the price is so high that if he 
can reach it it will take him years of profit to satisfy the land e 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 31 

shark. The same with city property. The people are crowded 
up in blocks, while lots lay vacant all around. This is not the 
greatest good for the greatest number. 

You will say that it is not wrong to own a twenty-five foot 
lot. It is wrong. It violates the law of political science. It 
is the wrong principle. It is the wrong base, and here is where 
we again leave the track. Stealing is wrong from a penny to 
a million dollars. Likewise the principle is wrong in the lot 
as well as a million acres. 

A single germ of yellow fever will not affect the body, but 
the increase and the fermenting will cause death. You want 
to kill the germ before it makes trouble. You must not take 
the lot, nor the penny. The safest way is not to be exposed to 
the disease germ, and the scientific way is to have no such fac- 
tor in our system. This has caused the trouble for ages. There 
is what Henry George calls the unearned increment. That is 
where a man purchases a piece of property for $100 and sells 
it for $1000. Less the interest and taxes, which we will say 
amount to $100 more, this leaves $800. To call that unearned 
is a misnomer. It has to be created somehow. 

For example, we will take the Catholic Church property 
in this city on Third avenue, below Yesler way. We take that 
property for two reasons. One is that some of the fathers 
have taken a stand against the Socialist theory. The second is 
they will have a practical illustration, and as they have a keener 
conception of honesty than the average business man, they may 
see the situation more clearly. This property was bought or 
was donated to the Rev. Father Prefontaine, one of the first 
Catholic missionaries on this Coast, a man whose popularity is 
limited only to the number of his friends, a man whose long 
service has been in the interest of humanity. At the time this 
property was secured the population was about 400 and the 
lot was worth probably $400. I am told that the property has 
been sold for $70,000. 

What created that $69,600? The building will be moved 
away. The lots are not any larger nor the soil any richer. 
What created that value? Every man, woman and child in 
this city had something to do with the increase of that prop- 
erty value which increased as population increased. The pop- 
ulation has grown to 140,000, so that every man, woman and 
child has created 50 cents each of that increased value of tha^t 
particular property, and every other church property and all 
other property in Seattle. If every man, woman and child 
would leave here tomorrow the whole value would disappear. 
Eastern capitalists come here and carry away millions of money 
created by the increase of population and leave nothing in re- 



32 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

turn. The church money will be spent here. The church will 
build a grand cathedral, the supervision of which, as well as 
the Catholic moral supervision, will be under the wise direction 
of the Rt. Rev. Bishop O'Dea, ably assisted by the Rev. Father 
O'Brien, whose greatest ambition would be to raise the morals 
of the people as high above their present plane as the spire of 
his cathedral will tower over the zero tide mark of Elliot Bay. 
There is no doubt but the people have received ample compen- 
sation for the use of the old church grounds so far. We will 
never know how much it has saved the city in criminal cases ; 
how many men she has kept out of the gutter ; how many chil- 
dren she has put on the right road, but that does not prove the 
right of private ownership. Private ownership offsets more 
than all the good the church can do. What more than any- 
thing else prevents the realization of the injustice of private 
ownership and stands in the way of a candid consideration of 
any proposition for abolishing it than the mental habit that 
makes everything that has long existed seem natural and neces- 
sary? We are so used to the treatment of land as individual 
property and it is so thoroughly recognized in our laws, man- 
ners and customs, that a vast majority of the people never 
think of questioning it, but look on it as necessary to the use 
of land. They are unable to conceive, or at least it does not 
enter their minds, society as existing or as possible without the 
reduction of land to private possession. The sacredness of 
property has been preached so constantly and effectually, espe- 
cially by those conservators of ancient barbarism, that most 
people look upon the private ownership of land as the -very 
foundation of civilization, and if the resumption of land as com- 
mon property is suggested they think of it at first blush either 
as a chimerical vagary which never was and never can be 
realized, or as a proposition to overturn society and bring 
about a revision to barbarism. 

REV. MR. GRAHAM ON HENRY GEORGE'S THEORY. 

Some fifteen years ago I was keeping hotel at Grand 
Forks, North Dakota. A man came off the train and regis- 
tered as Rev. Graham, Philadelphia, Pa. In conversation he 
said his business in North Dakota was to sell some land he had 
bought some four years before. He had bought from a man who 
had been in North Dakota and went back to Pennsylvania, got 
short of money and sold him the 160 acres for $400. It had up 
to that time cost him $600. He had a letter from a man in 
Nelson county, where his land lay, offering him $1,600 for the 
tract. He asked what land was worth in that locality. I 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 33 

thought $1,600 was a fair offer for 160 acres. "What is land 
worth in this locality?" "From $40 to $100." "Why is it 
worth more here than in Nelson county V " More densely set- 
tled." "Is this land any better?" "No." "Raise any more 
to the acre?" "No." "Any harder to cultivate?" "No." 
"Get any more for wheat?" "No." "Then I would think 
that land in Nelson county should be worth as much as this." 
' ' Yes, you would think so ; but it is more thickly settled around 
here, that creates a demand. Fifty to one hundred miles west 
of Nelson county you can get land for $1.25 per acre, or you 
can get a government claim of 160 acres by living on it." "Is 
that land as good as this?" "Yes." "As good as the land in 
Nelson county, as easy to cultivate, and price of wheat the 
same?" "Yes." What makes land so cheap out there?" 
"Being sparsely settled. When McHenry county is as densely 
settled as this county the price will be the same." 

Mr. Graham, in the course of a conversation, picked up a 
paper, the old Henry George "Standard," smiled and said: 
"I see you have the crazy Henry George literature out west, 
too.' I said: "Mr. Graham, perhaps you do not understand 
Mr. George's land theory." We talked single tax for about 
an hour, but we could not agree. "Now, Mr. Graham, you say 
you bought 160 acres of land in Nelson county?" "Yes." 
"You say it cost you $600.00, $400.00 for the land, taxes and 
interest and time and traveling expenses amounted to $200.00 
more, and now you are offered $1,600.00 for the land. Now, 
Mr. Graham, you are a minister of the gospel and must have 
a clear conception of honesty. Will you please tell what you 
will leave the people of Nelson county, what you will give this 
commonwealth in return for that $1,000?" Well, he said that 
was the rise of value in the land. "Did you create that rise 
in value, Mr. Graham?" "My time and money did." "You 
got your money all back, with interest, and pay for your time 
in the $600, but you have not told us what you give for this 
$1,000. That $1,000 was created, as we have seen, by the in- 
crease of population in the different counties not by any energy, 
time or money of yours. If emigration stopped when you 
bought or when your friend sold, the land would not be worth 
any more now than $400. When you bought you gambled on 
the rise. With all the respect due to the cloth you wear, as 
far as that deal went, you are no better than any other gambler 
who makes gambling his trade. Yours is the worst kind of 
gambling, you tie up 'the land and make the farmer slave to 
the amount of the rise. Your $1,000 is not a drop in the bucket 
to the millions taken from the farmers every year. You are 
of the class of men Mr. George is after." 



34 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

There is a lot on the corner of Second and Cherry street 
that sold for $240,000. Every man, woman and child created 
$1.75 of that value. If you do not thinly so, you move the 
people of Seattle all across the Sound, say to Eagle Harbor, 
and the lot on Cherry street will not sell for 240 cents. So you 
see it is the people collectively who create the value in land. 
Now, if the people create this value, why should they not get 
it instead of allowing one man to take it all ; taking that which 
he did not create ? Thus violating the science of political econ- 
omy and the third cardinal principle of political economy. 

There is no preacher, priest, pope or president who can 
refute that science. 

THE TARIFF. 

The next most important violation of the third cardinal 
principle of political economy — the greatest good to the great- 
est number — is the tariff. There has been so much said on 
this question that it is almost stale, and it is no nearer solution 
than it was twenty years ago. And the question, "Is it right 
or is it not?" still continues. 

The best that any logical reasoning can figure is that the 
science of tariff is to lift yourself by the boot straps. It is the 
science of taxing yourself rich. My first experience with tariff 
was forty years ago down in the Province of New Brunswick, 
with an old homestead on one side of the line and our principal 
trading post, Calais, Maine, on the other. There is where you 
can get a practical illustration of a protective tariff. There is 
where you can see it in all its deformity, in all its scourge and 
brutality. There was not a man or woman on either side of 
the line who was not bitterly opposed to it and would violate 
that law every chance they got, except, of course, the manufac- 
turers, and they would smuggle everything they could except 
their own product. Men who would not steal a postage stamp 
would not hesitate to defraud the revenue department of ten, 
fifty or a hundred dollars. There was tariff both ways, about 
all the products from the province were shut out and most all 
from the other side were taxed to come in. There was 50 cents 
on a barrel of flour. Fifteen cents would carry it to Liverpool 
and ad valorem all along the line. In North Dakota I lived for 
twenty-six years. The principal export was wheat. The price 
at Liverpool governed the price the world over. Everything 
the farmer used was raised by the tariff from 20 to 50 per cent. 
The only thing that Dakota got protection on was four cents a 
pound on wool. Four cents on all the wool of the largest 
crop ever raised in North Dakota did not amount to $5,000. 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 35 

The tax on the manufactured woolen goods that the people 
used amounted to $500,000. The farmer was on the wrong side 
of the ledger. 

UNIONS' EFFECT ON PRICE OF LABOR. 

It is claimed that the tariff raises wages. Supply and de- 
mand govern wages except where unions interfere to hold them 
up. I have seen it in Dakota, when wheat was $1 per bushel, 
men were plenty and could be had for $1.50 per day. Then, 
when wheat was 50 cents and men scarce, we would have to pay 
$2.50 per day. 

By tariff you shut out foreign goods ; that shuts down for- 
eign manufactories, and the foreigner comes over and takes 
the American's job. That does not protect American labor. 
This enables the manufacturer to get men cheap, and the tariff 
enables him to get high prices. That is not the greatest good 
to the greatest number. The logical conclusion of the tariff 
would be back to primitive man. If a tariff is a good thing 
between nations it must be a good thing between states ; if it is 
a good thing between states, it must be a good thing between 
counties ; if it is a good thing between counties, it must be a 
good thing between townships; if it is a good thing between 
townships, it must be a good thing between sections; if it is a 
good thing between sections, it must be a good thing between 
lots. Now we are down to primitive man, where every man 
built his own hut, killed his own game, made his own clothes 
and cooked his own food. It is between nations as it is between 
men. A carpenter would not make his own shoes nor clothes. 
He could buy more of those things for what he could earn as 
a carpenter in one day than he could make in two. Some coun- 
tries are adapted to lumbering, some to stock-raising, some to 
fruit-growing, and some to mining. The lumberman can save 
energy by selling lumber and buying fruit, and so all along the 
line. True science of commerce knows no lines. It will go 
where and as far as it is profitable. That is the only law to 
regulate commerce. There are very few men sent to Washing- 
ton who have experience in commerce. When one such gets to 
Washington he is led' around by some corporation lawyer to 
make special laws in favor of some big corporation. Not a law 
of the greatest good for the greatest number. In North Da- 
kota the McCormick , Machine Company charges the farmer 
$75 for a seeder. They sell the same machine in Manitoba for 
$45, and all other machinery the same way. That is what the 
people get for voting them protection. 

Take off the tariff and they will sell you the same as they 



36 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

do to the foreigner. Steel rails that sell for $28 in this coun- 
try are sold abroad for $19. The same condition exists in all 
other lines. 

Any man who has a logical brain who reads John Stewart 
Mill's work on "International Commerce" will see the absurd- 
ity of a protective tariff. That work educated the English 
people and made them the greatest commercial people of the 
world and for years supreme on land and sea. She will never 
appreciate Sir Robert Peel until she adopts American protec- 
tion. 

As a source of revenue it is unjust. It takes one million 
dollors from the people to get two hundred thousand dollars in 
the treasury. Take the fifty-eight millions that was raised 
from sugar — the widow with ten boarders will pay more of 
that tax than a millionaire who has a small family because she 
uses more sugar. The tax is mostly on staple goods that the 
poor have to use. It is a tax that no man or woman escapes. 

The protectionist will tell you this is the greatest country 
in the world because of the tariff. This is a great country, not 
because of a high tariff, but in spite of it. The tariff enables 
manufacturers to raise prices. The rise of price curtails con- 
sumption. The curtailing of consumption curtails labor. The 
curtailing of consumption and labor causes panics. The tariff 
interests and influence have completely corrupted our govern- 
ment at Washington. Protected industries donate large sums 
of money to the campaign funds. In 1896 the Republican cam- 
paign fund amounted to fourteen million dollars, used to buy 
up and elect representatives of the people and use them, not 
for the greatest good of the greatest number, but in the inter- 
est of corporate greed. A corporation or individual can afford 
to give a million to enact a law whereby he can make ten mill- 
ions. This money is not paid to get just laws 4 it is to get unjust 
laws passed that gives them advantage over the people at large. 
It would not be necessary to buy men to make just laws. The 
tariff forces join with all other grafts, saying, "If you vote for 
my steal I will vote for yours." 
* 

HOW WASHINGTON AFFECTS OUR REPRESENTATIVES. 

When a man is elected to Congress or the Senate the 
chances are that he has been elected by the help of the cam- 
paign fund. He is already bought. He gets on his dog collar 
and gets into line. He has nothing to do with making laws 
against a tariff or on any other important law that is in the 
interest of the people. He sold that right when he accepted^ 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 37 

the money that elected him to office. There are men elected 
and sent to Washington without the aid of the tariff campaign 
fund, but such a one finds he is up against a strong combination. 
He will not get what honestly, in the way of an appropriation, 
belongs to his state unless he votes with the corporate interests 
that are already strongly entrenched. If he should fail to get 
what honestly belongs to the state the subsidized press would 
point the finger of scorn at him and his own state would have 
no more use for him. State legislatures and city councils are 
on the same plane, only on a smaller scale. Any law passed by 
any of these legislative bodies in the interest of the greatest 
good to the greatest number would be liable to be set aside as 
unconstitutional by some corporation judge. I think it logical 
to say that a protective tariff is diametrically opposed to the 
cardinal principles of political economy. The competitive sys- 
tem can not be systematized in any logical form. 

LAND, LABOR AND TOOLS OF PRODUCTION. 

The fourth cardinal principle of political economy — the 
greatest result from the least exertion — will now take our at- 
tention. 

The greatest violator of this principle of political science 
is what is termed capital. Under the competitive system there 
enters four factors — land, labor, tools of production, and cap- 
ital. 

Under scientific political economy there are only three — 
land, labor and tools of production. The fourth, capital, is 
an illusion and does not exist. A false god, a disturbing ele- 
ment. In that science it is negative. We are leaning on some- 
thing that has no intrinsic value ; we are trying to build in the 
air. You never can run on a scientific basis if you let that 
factor enter science. Let it out altogether. In the competitive 
system it is pretty nearly the whole thing. The whole com- 
mercial system has almost settled down to one thing — money. 

GOLD THE BASE OF ALL VALUE. 

Every man you meet talks money; he has no interest in 
you if you do not. He will sell anything he has in his posses- 
sion for money. He . will sell the homestead where he was 
born and raised, and his father before him. He will sell the 
family Bible. There is nothing too sacred. He will sacrifice 
his honor. He will sanction a law that will take a prostitute's 
money to pay his taxes. He will sacrifice his health and his 



38 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

soul. There are several kinds of money in circulation, but they 
are all based on gold. Since the gold standard law took effect 
all the world's wealth is measured by it. It is the measure of 
all commodities; man's day's work is measured by it. 

The amount per capita in circulation affects all business. 
Draw out a few millions and business will be depressed; put 
a hundred or two millions more into circulation and business 
will boom, but if you owned all the gold in the world and had 
it in your cellar it would not feed a canary bird over night. 
Did you ever stop to think of what a damnable folly the civil- 
ized world was a-straddle of? The gold of the world today is 
manipulated in "Wall street and Lombard street by gamblers, 
who loan out or call in as it suits the game. They can raise 
prices or they can lower prices, as they see fit, by such games 
as we read of in "Frenzied Finance." Sage, a man 85 years 
old, the other day dealt a hand in New York. He called in 
twenty millions and created a panic on Wall street, which re- 
sulted in a rush to cover shorts. That created a demand for 
money and he loaned out the twenty millions at 4 per cent and 
cleaned up $30,000. A nice afternoon's work for the old gent. 
That is not scientific economy, but it is what we call business ; 
not business for the greatest number, but to rob the greatest 
number in the interest of the gambler. That is the fourth fac- 
tor in the competitive system, that is its especial function. It 
disturbs the other three. 

It is estimated that every dollar in gold takes twenty days ' 
work to produce it, when a quarter of a cent in the shape of 
promise to pay would do just as well. Can you estimate the 
amount of energy and toil that would save the human race? 
Can you estimate the amount of energy, labor and time that 
is wasted on the gold we are getting out of Alaska? See the 
amount of men there are up there; see the ships employed; 
see the thousands of tons of freight ; see the railroads building 
up there. There is nothing else produced there, so it must 
all be charged up to gold. Under the cardinal principle of the 
greatest result from the least exertion, all that could be saved 
and life in the line of least resistance is demonstrated by the 
science of political economy. The money question has agitated 
the human race as far back as history can be traced, and with 
all the knowledge and science of today, it is no nearer solution 
than it was two hundred years ago. 

MR. GEORGE'S THEORY A FALSE ONE. 

Mr. George in his noted work, Progress and Poverty, 
theorized with four factors: Capital, Land, Labor and Tools- 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 30 

of Production. Mr. George's theory of land ownership was 
correct, and the single tax, as it were, gave a ray of light, and 
the propaganda spread all over this country and Europe. Clubs 
were formed all over the country, but when they tried to 
harmonize it with the other three factors, it would not work. 
Under the competitive system, land and labor could not work 
without the tools of production, and the money question mixed 
them up still more. The press was not slow to show up the 
inconsistency of the theory, and today there is very little 
interest in single tax. 

FALLACY OF THE COMPETITIVE SYSTEM. 

The theory of public ownership was sound, but the private 
ownership of production was not sound. To work scientific 
economy it must be all sound. The four cardinal principles 
of the economic science must be applied. Mr. George's cam- 
paign demonstrated that the people are all ready for a change. 

The fourth cardinal principle of political economy is also 
violated by our present mercantile system. Take a glance along 
the four principal business streets in this city, each one a mile 
long. You will see that every twenty-five feet is occupied by 
some business or store of some kind, and from ten to six hun- 
dred of each kind. Those stores are paying from $50 to $500 
per month rent. They will have from one to three hundred 
clerks. Some of those clerks may not have to work more 
than one-third of the time, some may work half the time, and 
some work hard all the time. Some stores are making money 
and some are losing money. Some sell at one price, some at 
another, and they all despise the other fellow in the same 
business. They will lie about each other. They will mark 
up goods today and down tomorrow. They will charge one 
man one price and one another. They will mark down goods 
to show that the other fellow is robbing the people, then mark 
them up and say the other fellow's goods are no good. They 
all have various quantities and qualities. Some buy the same 
goods at the same price and some at another price. Some pay 
cash, some buy on time. Some sell for cash, some sell on time. 
Some are honest and will pay for their goods, some will fail 
and put the money in their pockets. Some will set their stores 
on fire and burn them up for the insurance. Some will trade 
their stock for some other property. Some will sell out and 
quit the business. But it is the history of the merchants that 
ninety per cent, go to the wall, and that is one of the causes of 
the uneven distribution of wealth. It violates the law of the 



40 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

greatest result from the least exertion. It is not in the line 
of least resistance. It is not scientific economy. 

No safe or sane business man would conduct his business 
in this manner. He would at least have the different branches 
under one head in one department, instead of three hundred 
different heads and departments. But you will say that is a 
trust, a monopoly. But it is the greatest result from the least 
exertion. It is science. It is the law of evolution. You cannot 
stop it. 

It may and will become oppressive. The oppression is no 
part of the science, and science will reach out further and stop 
the oppression. Great centralization of the production of 
wealth under one head is the science of political economy, and 
it has no limit. 

The science is not complete until every blow struck, all 
wealth produced, all land and all sea, belonging to this country, 
is under one head. You will say that is one grand monopoly, 
one great trust, and will be oppressive. Yes, it could be, but 
we will not stop there. Science will take the man as it did the 
product. The laboring man who creates all the wealth of the 
world in his battle for existence has no perfect organization. 
He is like the general who would go out with 100,000 men and 
tell them all to go on their own hook. What kind of a fight 
would that general make? A captain with one hundred well 
drilled men would drive him off the field. But now they are 
organizing and drilling in squads all over the world, and in 
time they will come up solid under one head. There will be 
ten to one with ballots or bullets in favor of the working man. 
Mr. Bryan, it is safe to say, is one of the most honest and con- 
scientious that ever mixed in politics. To whom you may well 
apply that high compliment, he would rather be right than be 
president, has always opposed the combination of large corpor- 
ations. But there is no just law, no scientific law, that should 
stop a system that is in the line of the greatest result from the 
least exertion. 

W. J. BRYAN ON PUBLIC OWNERSHIP. 

The combination of wealth is the law of self-preservation 
for the corporation, just as the organization of labor is the 
self-preservation of labor. Mr. Bryan lately is advocating 
the state ownership of railroads. So far so good. That is 
the principle of Socialism, and if it is sound policy to apply 
to railroads, it is sound to apply to all other tools of production. 
The people have the same right to the land. There we have 
the three factors necessary to production. That will be true. 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 41 

justice. The greatest good to the greatest number; the greatest 
result from the least exertion. 

In the great ocean of human events we are at sea without 
a rudder. The ship of state has no pilot. There is no compass 
aboard the ship. Every other science has its professors. They 
are rewarded according to their ability. Lionized if they make 
new discoveries, they have all made wonderful progress. But 
this great science of political economy that is useful in everyday 
life and should be used in everyday transactions is never ap- 
plied. We are about as helpless as a boy who did not know 
the multiplication tables trying to straighten out a bank ac- 
count, and we must commence at the twice one are two. We 
must learn the a b c, and the way is to go back to primitive 
man and see where he first left the track. We must be careful 
and go slow. 

MAN IN THE PRIMITIVE AGE. 

When primitive man built his own hut, made his own fire, 
killed his own game, tanned his hides and made his own clothes, 
and cooked his own grub, he had no trouble, and the system 
was perfect. No man got one cent's worth of what he pro- 
duced; his neighbor did the same thing. But in the course of 
human events they discovered that some men were better at 
som particular kind of work than others. Another thing they 
learned, that the more a man worked at one thing the more pro- 
ficient he became. The old way was as simple as it was honest. 
But it was not in the line of the greatest result from the least 
exertion. And primitive man proceeded to apply the first 
science. 

Now we will keep close to the cardinal principles of polit- 
ical economy and see where they were first violated, and where 
primitive man made his first error and left the track. 

We will commence our example with one man representing 
each factor in the simple life of that age. There was the hut 
builder, the hunter, the tanner, the tailor, the shoe maker, the 
toolmaker, the cook, the fisherman, the boat builder and the 
grave digger. The hut builder would build all the huts and 
would exchange his work for one-tenth part of the other nine. 
The hunter would do the same, and so with all the rest, and 
one man, to be fair to all the others, should take and consume 
his tenth from each one. As long as they did so the plan 
worked all right. But in the course of time some one got 
hurt in the hunt or got sick, or some one became demented, 
another had a large family. In case of the disabled man, he 



42 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

could not produce his share. In the case of the man with a 
large family he would have to have more than his tenth from 
each one. Here is where they should apply that cardinal princi- 
ple, the greatest good to the greatest number. There is where 
they should have formed co-operation. A little more from each 
one would have taken care of the feeble and the large family. 
But they violated the law of science, and they violated the law 
of brotherly love. 

CAPITAL AS A DISTURBING ELEMENT. 

Some one more shrewd and more selfish than the rest, 
fearing that want might overtake him, conceived the idea of 
saving part of his share of the product, or what is now called 
curtailing expenses. He would not take the full tenth from 
each one in produce. He would take their promise to pay, 
less the amount that he was barely forced to use. That balance 
might be one-third of one-tenth from each one. That one- 
third is what is called capital, and where it first showed its 
head. That is the idle capital that lays in the banks. It was 
conceived in iniquity and born in sin. In the first place it was 
a crime against himself by depriving himself of the necessities 
of life. He became what we call a miser. He did not feed him- 
self properly nor clothe himself properly. He would drop out 
of society to save expenses. He was not fair to the community. 
He caused overproduction. He caused lack of consumption on 
his own part and curtailed production on the part of his 
neighbors. He then takes the capital or promises to pay that 
he prostituted his manhood to accumulate and loans it to the 
destitute or the man with the large family, at his own terms, 
and those terms, as in the ease of all shylocks, are not favorable 
to the borrower, who in time becomes his slave. 

WHAT GIVES VALUE TO GOLD OR SILVER. 

There came another disturbing element to the body politic 
which was worse than the first. Man found, in groping over 
the earth, what is known as precious metals and precious stones. 
These were of no value at first, but were used as ornaments, 
as there was no intrinsic value connected with them, but in 
time a demand was created on account of their beauty. False 
pride gave them a value, and they came to be exchanged for 
goods. But gold and diamond buyers were not consumers. 
They, like the miser, caused lack of consumption. Another 
cause that gave them value was when the tribe was conquered < 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 43 

by some other tribe. All their belongings would be taken, 
but the gold and diamonds could be hidden or carried away. 

As population increased, the hunting ground became in 
greater demand, and kept the tribes in a turmoil, one being in 
possession today and another tomorrow, until there was nothing 
safe to base a value on except gold or precious stones. It 
then becomes a factor in the body politic. More especially 
in modern civilization and its functions, in the hands of un- 
scrupulous men, its damage to the human race cannot be 
estimated. 

Gold and silver get their values from their scarcity, and it 
has always been the policy of the manipulators to keep them 
scarce. All panics can only be accounted for by the scarcity 
of money. There never was a time in the history of the world 
when over-circulation of money caused any trouble, but the 
scarcity of money always gave the money changers big inter- 
est, and they, being the manipulators, took every precaution 
to oppose any theory that would interfere with big interest. 
All money questions are referred to the bankers. 

Money changers got control of the gold and made it the 
standard of measure, and that was only 17 per cent, of what 
was necessary to do the business of the country. And then 
not for any length of time could it be a standard. As measured 
per capita, money drawn out of circulation shrinks the measure, 
and prices will fall to that extent. Throw $200,000,000 into 
circulation and prices will rise. So you see it is not a standard 
or a measure for any length of time. Back in the fifties there 
was a great emigration west to Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and 
Minnesota. There was the state banking law at that time, 
and the banks issued money on farmers' collateral. They 
opened up farms, built houses, roads, bridges, schools and 
churches, and business in all branches was flourishing. But 
the money changers in Wall Street were not getting rich 
out of that deal, and word was sent out that state banks were 
not sound, and the whole business was stopped and one-half of 
the people returned east. That was a case where the people 
were doing business with their own money and had all they 
wanted. They claimed that the trouble was no gold behind 
them. But there was farm lands and farmers' improvements. 
They had intrinsic value. 

BANK OF VENICE. 

About 1750 the Bank of Venice, then the financial center 
of the world, was at its height. All large concerns in Europe 



44 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

did business through credit at the Bank of Venice. At that 
time the high seas were overrun with pirates, and outlying 
districts were overrun with brigands, and it was not safe to 
carry treasure, so all treasure was sent to the Bank of Venice 
and credit extended through that bank. Millions of dollars' 
worth of business was done on the strength of the immense 
wealth that was supposed to lay in the vaults of the Bank of 
Venice. But while the world was doing business on the bank's 
promise to pay, the gold did not lie idle in the vaults. It was 
used in making Venice a blaze of grandeur such as the world 
had never seen. When Napoleon captured that city he made 
a dash for the bank, but the vaults were covered with dust. 
There had been no gold there for years, and the world had 
been doing business on the bank's promise to pay, which was 
just as good, while Venice made a gorgeous display with the 
gold. The using of the gold and the promises to pay doubled 
the circulating medium, hence the glories of Venice. 

This shows what the wealth making power could do if 
it ever got the money changers off their backs. 

ENGLAND'S RAKE-OFF IN THE DEMONETIZATION OF 

SILVER. 

England was one of the powers behind the demonetization 
of silver. She wanted cheap silver. She could take 53 cents, 
buy our silver, make it into rupees and do business in India, 
where we would have to pay 100 cents. This gave England a 
47 per cent advantage with 275,000,000 population in India. 
Then, to add still more to their power and profit, the money 
changers influenced the English government to close the mints 
of India to the coinage of silver. That closed most of the silver 
mines in India, as it did not pay to work them, as in the United 
States. That destroyed one of India's industries and forced 
them to take the 53 cents at 100 cents in the shape of the rupee, 
with the stamp of the realm, that they claimed gave it the extra 
value. They bought the natives' silver at 53 cents and forced 
them to take it back for services or produce at 100 cents. The 
money changer always jealously guarded against any move 
that would make opposition in his line. 

PANIC FAILURES OF '93. 

The statistics of the mint and assay offices show that from 
1793 up to 1893 the coinage of gold and silver were pretty 
near even, two million and some odd thousand being in favor 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 45 

of silver. There never was a time in that period that there was 
any trouble from too much money, but all panics in that period 
were caused from scarcity of money. The most depressing 
times in the last century was from 1845 to 1849, when gold 
was first discovered in California. From that time up to 1893 
that state produced from $1,000,000 to $35,000,000 in gold 
each year. Montana, Colorado, Nevada and other states pro- 
duced large quantities of gold and silver, but the rich silver 
mines of Montana, Colorado and Nevada caused alarm in the 
camp of the money changers, and they determined to suppress 
that opposition. That silver was demonetized, and how it was 
done, is well known to those that have closely watched the 
financial question. Although it had been coined for twenty 
years, under the supervision of John Sherman, who was the 
hired tool of Wall and Lombard Streets, a man who was the 
leader in all financial moves at Washington, a man who was 
a traitor to the best interests of his country, with the help of 
Grover Cleveland's safe and sane policy, did much to demone- 
tize silver as well as to disrupt his party. 

In the spring of ninety the Sherman bill, limiting the coin- 
age of silver to $4,500,000, was repealed, and the greatest panic 
of the last century occurred. Banks went down all over the 
country, thirteen in one week failing in Minneapolis alone. 

The Hypotheek Bank, of Spokane, a branch of the Loan 
& Savings Bank of Holland, loaned on farms and city property 
in the States of Washington, Idaho and Oregon $12,000,000. 
This was loaned on a one-third valuation. The contracting of 
the currency by one-half by demonetization of silver caused the 
price of produce to fall to the same level. That left no profit 
to pay the mortgage. This caused the value of the farm to 
shrink until it would not sell for the mortgage. The money 
changer built better than he kenw. They discovered that they 
could not get their money back. The Bank of Holland offered 
to settle with the directors of the Hypotheek Bank for $9,000,- 
000, but at that time they could not raise $1,000,000 at Spokane. 
They therefore foreclosed on perhaps 75 per cent, of the prop- 
erty, and the men who had owned hundred thousand dollar 
blocks were glad to get a job as janitor, and I believe you had 
the same experience in Seattle. 

The excuse made by the money changers for demonetizing 
silver was that there was too much money, and they told about 
the "sound dollar." They said that if one-half of the money 
were thrown away the other half would do the business all 
right. It would be better for the banks and the people, too. 
It was certainly better for the banker, but ruin for the man 
who had debts to pay. But we must have sound money. 



46 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

It was like a man who had cornered all the wheat in the 
country. He would tell you that all else that man used for 
food was not sound, and would get a law passed excluding 
all other food. He could then get a good round price for the 
wheat. 

Another reason, and a proof that there was too much 
money, was that when the times were hard there was the most 
money in the bank, and that too much money was the cause. 
Money naturally rushes to the bank when any disturbance 
causes prices to fall. A man will not buy land or build houses 
if prices are going to fall. He will want to put it out on 
interest. It is put in the bank and checked out to some one 
who will give good security. That comes in competition with 
the banker, and he feels the reaction of his own squeeze. It 
works like an endless chain. The ultimate result is to destroy 
all values. The money changer then lays back. 

The producing power will start at any pace and produce 
wealth, and the inflow of gold will stimulate prices, but the 
money changer, like the vulture, will be ready to light on fresh 
carrion. The gold is not a sound basis, but he lives off carrion. 
Gold could not be made the measure of values. On the other 
hand is the fact that if there was no limit it would take a ton 
to buy a sack of flour. There is no way to make a just measure 
for a man's day's work. There is no measure, no fair measure, 
of a man's day's work but the fair day's work of another 
man. Who ever tries will waste his time in trying to solve it. 

Capital and the private ownership of land and land values 
are two disturbing elements. 

There are ten thousand twenty-five-foot lots in this city, 
which can make ten thousand parasites, who will take from 
society all the way from a bare living to $5,000 a year on West- 
ern, First, Second and Third, between the tide flats and Queen 
Anne Hill. The value is created by the people collectively. 
If you do not believe that, let all the people move over to, 
say, Eagle Harbor, take six miles square over there that 
is now worth $10 an acre, and you will transfer the values, 
and Seattle will be worth $10 per acre. So you see the people 
create the value, and not the private owner, and it is just to 
give the value to them who create it, and when a man wants it 
he wants what belongs to another. This is science. This is 
political economy. 

We have gone over the situation carefully and we cannot 
apply science to private ownership, no more than we can use 
gold for a measure of value. Science will not allow it. It 
violates the four cardinal principles of political economy, 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 47 

truth, justice, the greatest good to the greatest number, and 
the greatest result for the least exertion. 

Some people have a horror of the idea of Socialism, 
Communism or Co-operation. But we do not observe how near 
all wealth is to community interests. A man may own business 
blocks and dwelling houses, they will be all rented to the peo- 
ple. He may own mills and manufactories, they are producing 
for the people. He may have a farm, the crops are for the 
people. He may have ships at sea, shipping goods over the 
world to those who want. He has money in the bank. Every- 
one can use it that will secure the bank, except 20 per cent 
that the banks are compelled to hold. All interests at large 
are protected by the people. Those various interests are con- 
trolled by various persons, and are spasmodic, and therefore 
cannot be systematized. Under co-operation they could be reg- 
ulated under the law of the greatest good for the greatest 
number, and the greatest result from the least exertion. 

SOCIALISM SELF-CONDEMNED BY J. SEFTEN, S. J. 

An article in the Catholic Progress of November 4, 1904, 
termed "Socialism Self Condemned. Socialism labors under 
the disadvantage of having placed itself on record touching 
social, religious and economic questions. An able paper based 
on authentic utterances of exponents of this impossible system." 

"The articles I have so far published on the subject of 
Socialism have brought me some private letters from Socialist 
leaders, among their associates personally well known — mean- 
ing men as far as I can judge who have deceived themselves 
as to the real purposes of the party to which they belong. 
They tell me I do not understand Socialism, and they claim 
naturally enough that they know more about their own society 
than outsiders are likely to do, yet an outsider may have studied 
the writing of their acknowledged leaders more thoroughly 
and closely than thousands among the Socialists. If I have 
misunderstood these writings I wish to give my correspondents 
and other gentlemen of their class an opportunity to point out 
my mistake. But the main purpose I have in writing this 
paper is to disabuse those imagining that Socialism is on the 
whole a just and beneficent system of government. I maintain 
on the contrary that it is inconsistent with morality and sound 
sense, and it is subversive of Christianity and all religion of 
the family and the state. To prove this I will let the leading 
Socialists speak for themselves. 

First, Socialism is destructive of all Christianity, and in 
fact all religion. 



48 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

James Leatham, a prominent English Socialist, wrote in 
his work, "Socialism and Character," 1897: At the present 
moment I cannot remember of a single instance of a person 
who is at the same time a really earnest and intelligent Social- 
ist and an orthodox Christian. Those who do not openly attack 
the church and the fabric of Christianity show but scant re- 
spect to either one or the other in private, and all are thus in- 
different to the church. Many of us are frankly hostile to her. 
Marx, Lasalle, Ingalls, Morris, Beach, Hindman, Geosde and 
Bebel are all more or less atheists." 

When the writer makes the statement that Socialism is 
opposed to all religion he begs the question. There are 1,200 
Socialist votes in this city; 1,900 in this county; 7,000 in this 
state, and 1,000,000 in the United States. Will the writer tell 
us what he knows about the religious belief of those million 
voters ? How many has he interviewed in regard to their spir- 
itual affairs? I am personally acquainted with more good 
Catholics who are Socialists than you have mentioned in your 
list, and they do not see anything in Socialism to conflict with 
their faith. Socialism is based on the four cardinal principles 
of political economy — truth, justice, the greatest good to the 
greatest number, and the greatest result from the least exer- 
tion — and there is nothing in the Catholic church that con- 
demns those cardinal principles. This is the base of Socialism, 
irrespective of any religion; it takes in all Christendom, all 
Gentiles, all Buddhists, all Mohamedans, all Atheists, all Spirit- 
ualists, all Materialists, all white men, all yellow men, all black 
men, all God's human race. And when any one tells you they 
don't, you tell them they do not understand Socialism. And 
when you say they are opposed to the church you do not under- 
stand Socialism. If you will take Webster and define the word 
you will find that he says it is a social state in which there is a 
community of property among all the people of a state. That 
is Socialism. Nothing more nor less, as governed by the sci- 
ence of political economy. Science is knowledge. Is there 
any crime about this ? I can not discover any crime there, and 
I have studied it for fifteen years. 

The trouble with the writer is that he is judging Socialism 
by some bad Socialists he has happened to hear from. If we 
should judge Christianity by some Christians we would have 
a bad opinion of Christianity. James Leatham would not be 
authority on all the English Socialists' spiritual convictions 
no more than you could be in this country. Spiritual convic- 
tions are one thing and politics is another. If all the English 
Socialists were Atheists, that would not mean that Socialism 
was wrong, nor that it was Socialism that made them Atheists, 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 49 

for they never lived under that system. If the system of the 
government had anything to do with making them Atheists it 
must be the present system. 

Wilhelm Liebknecht wrote: "It is our duty as Socialists 
to root out the faith of God with all our zeal, nor is any one 
worthy of the name who does not consecrate himself to the 
spread of Atheism.' 

The irrational, unnatural, unscientific philosophy that sci- 
ence is opposed to religion is as false as it is dangerous, and 
demoralizing as the blasphemy of Liebknecht, and all that 
school of philosophy taught by Hagel and other spiritual de- 
generates. 

SCIENCE A WORD MUCH ABUSED. 

Science is a word much abused just now when all sorts 
of pretenders to special knowledge style themselves scientists 
and all sorts of poorly verified speculations are called science. 
Yet it has a well defined meaning which may be easily kept in 
mind. Literally, the word means knowledge, and is used to 
distinguish a particular kind of knowledge that is the highest 
and the deepest kind. 

THE FOUR SCHOOLS OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY. 

There are four schools of modern philosophy — sensualism, 
idealism, skepticism, and mysticism. Each one of those schools 
is voluminous in detail. 

Sensualism admits of no theory, no reasoning, no philoso- 
phy, beyond sense impression. What you can not see, feel, smell, 
hear or taste do not exist. This is the result of Materialism 
and Atheism. 

Idealism was first advocated by Hume, an English philoso- 
pher of the fifteenth century, who wrote that noted work called 
the "Origin of Ideas." This, too, dispensed with God, as he 
could not formulate a cause outside of matter. Agnosticism 
originated from the Philosophy of Spencer and Huxley. They 
could not discover God in material objects, to sense impres- 
sion, gravitation and vibration, and decided there was nothing 
beyond. If that is not God, what the devil can it be ? Those 
three schools merge into one another. Their advocates were 
some of the brightest and ablest men of the three last centur- 
ies — Humes, Locke, Scoupenheur, Speniza, Kant, Voltaire, 
Tindall, Hagel, Darwin, Huxley, Spencer, and a thousand lesser 
lights. They were men of large reasoning and perceptive quali- 



50 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

ties, deep students in material science, and unlimited command 
of language. Their deep scientific research in the material 
plane gave them a profound air of great knowledge, giving 
them prestige, as it were, over the common people.. Besides 
their theories came in conflict with the teachings of the church, 
which called the attention of the Christian world to their 
philosophy, and all ignorant and weak in their faith were swept 
off their feet or became indifferent. This is what created 
Atheism, not Socialism. Sixty per cent of the American people 
belong to nor church, the result of these school's of modern 
philosophy. 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF THE ABSOLUTE. 

In our search for substance, in our search for reality, we 
employ two factors — the subject and the object. For the ob- 
ject we will take a square piece of material. It is white. It 
is heavy. It is hard. We have reduced the square to qualities 
of the subject, but there is no relation between qualities and 
subject to create any change that is perceptible. There is no 
relation between white and hardness, nor between hardness and 
weight that creates substance or reality. The color is conveyed 
to the mind by vision. No one has ever yet discovered or can 
explain vision. The weight is conveyed to the brain by the 
power of gravitation. That power is likewise a mystery to 
man. Hardness is conveyed to the brain by touch. Hardness 
is caused by vibration. We do not know what vibration is. 
When we are asked as to reality or matter which fills up the 
empty outline we can reply in one word that this matter is ex- 
perience. Experience means much the same as given and pres- 
ent fact. But the alleged independence of reality is no fact, but 
a theoretical construction, and so far as it has a meaning contra- 
dicts itself and results in chaos. And since it seems that what 
appears must somewhere certainly be one, and since this unity 
is a not to be discovered phenomena, the reality threatens to 
migrate to other worlds than ours. 

The purpose of philosophy, as has been pointed out, is to 
know God, which is to know things in their truth. To see all 
things in God; to comprehend the world in its eternal signifi- 
cance. 

Suppose the purpose capable of being achieved, what 
method is open to its attainment ? 

There is on one hand the method of ordinary science in 
dealing with its objects. These are things, found, as it were, 
projected into space, before the observer, lying outside one 
another in prima facie independence, though connected by a 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 51 

further finding with each other by certain accidents called 
realities and relations. 

Among the objects of knowledge there are included by 
the somewhat naive intellect, that accepts tradition like physi- 
cal fact, certain things of a rather peculiar character. One of 
these is God. The others, which a historical critism has sub- 
joined, are the soul and the world. And whatever may be said 
of the reality or existence of the world, there is no doubt that 
God and the soul figure, and figure largely, in the consciousness 
of the human race as entities, differing probably in many re- 
spects from other things, but still possessed of certain funda- 
mental features in common, and thus playing a part as distinct 
realities as amongst other realities. 

Given such objects, it is natural for a reflecting mind to 
attempt to make out a science of the soul just as other things. 
To these a system-loving philosopher might add a science of 
the world (Cosmos). It was felt, indeed, that these objects 
were peculiar and unique. Thus, for example, as regards God, 
it was held necessary by the logician who saw tradition in its 
true light to prove His existence, and various arguments to that 
end were at different times devised. With regard to the hu- 
man soul similar it was considered essential to establish its 
independent reality as a thing really separate from the body 
organism with which its phenomena were obviously connected. 
To prove, in short, its substantial existence and its emancipa- 
tion from the bodily fate of dissolution and decay. 

With reference to the world the problem was rather differ- 
ent. It was felt that the name suggested problems for thought 
rather than denoted reality. How can we predicate of the 
whole what is predicated of its parts. This or that may have 
a beginning and a cause, may have a limit and an end; but 
can the totality be presented under these aspects without lead- 
ing to self-contradiction? And the result of these questions 
in cosmology was to shed, in the long run, similar doubts 
on rational theology and rational psychology. Practically, this 
metaphysical science, which is so called in dealing with the 
province or provinces of being, beyond the ordinary or the nat- 
ural physical realities, treated God and the soul by the same 
terms or categories as it is used in material objects. God, e. g., 
was a force, a cause, an end; so, too, was the soul. 

The main butt of Kant's destructive criticism of pure rea- 
son was to challenge the justice of including God and the soul 
among the objects of science, which you may know, as we may 
know, as. plants or stars. To make an object of knowledge in 
the strict sense, is to make a thing the perceived. Rand urges 
that perception is space and time. Without a sensation, and 



52 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

that sensation as it were laid out in place and duration, an 
object of science is impossible. No mere demonstration will 
conjure it into existence. With these requirements, the old 
theological psychology, which professed to expound the object, 
God and the subject soul were ruled out of order in the list of" 
science and reduced to mere dialectical exercises, 

The circle of the science therefore does not lead beyond 
the region of space and time. This has nothing to say of a 
first cause or of an ultimate end. 

Such was the result that might be fairly read from Kant's 
criticism of pure reason, especially if read without its supple- 
mentary sequels, and above all if read by those in whom the 
feeling was stronger than thought or who were by nature more 
endowed with the craving for faith than with the mind of 
philosophy. The criticism of pure reason has been described 
by its author as a generalization of Hume's problem. Hume, 
he thought, had treated this on the relation of ideas on their 
bearing upon matters of fact, mainly with the isolated case of 
cause and effect. Kant estimated the inquiry so as to comprise 
all the connective and unified ideas which form the subject 
matter of metaphysics. In his own technical language, which 
has lost its meaning for the present day, he asked our sympa- 
thetic judgments, a priori, possibly, a question which in another 
place has been translated into form. Is the metaphysical 
faith of man sound and is metaphysical faith possible? By 
metaphysics he meant in the first instance the belief in a more 
than empirical reality, and secondly the science which should 
give real knowledge of God, freedom and immortality. A 
science whose object would be God, the world and the soul. 
From a comparatively early date, 1764, Kant had been in- 
clined to suspect and distrust the claims of metaphysics, to re- 
place faith, and to give knowledge of spiritual reality, and he 
had tried to vindicate for the moral and religious life an inde- 
pendence of the conclusion, and the methods of the conclu- 
sions and the methods of the metaphysical theology, and psy- 
chology of the day. But it was not until some years later, in 
1770, that he formulated any very definite views as to the es- 
sential conditions of scientific knowledge, and it was not until 
1781 that his theory on the subject wa^ put together in a pro- 
visionally complete shape. What then are the criteria of sci- 
ence? When is our thought, knowledge, and of objective 
reality? In the first place, there must be a given something, a 
sense datum, an impression, as Hume might have said. If 
there be no impression, there can be no scientific idea, no real 
knowledge. There must be the primary touch, the feeling, the 
affection, the contact with reality. .< 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 53 

Second, what is given can only be received if taken by 
the recipient, and in such measure as he is able to appropriate 
it. The given is received in a certain mood. In the present 
case the sensation is apprehended and perceived under the 
forms of space and time. 

Perception, in other words, whatever may be its special 
quality or its sensuous material, is always an act of dating and 
localization. The distinction between the mere lump of feeling 
or sensibility, and the perception, is that the latter implies a 
field of extension and mutually excluding parts of space and a 
series of points of time, both field and series being continuous, 
and so far as inexhaustibility goes, infinite. 

Third, even in the reception of the given there is action 
and spontaneity. If the more passive recipiency be called sci- 
ence this active element in the adaptation may be termed in- 
tellect. Intellect is a power or process of choice, selection, 
comparison, distinguishing and dividing analysis and synthesis, 
affirmation and rejection, remuneration of judgment, and 
doubt of connection and injunction, differentiation and inte- 
gration. In general aspects Kant somethimes described as 
judgment. The act of thought which correlates by distin- 
guishing, sometimes by apperception, and the unity of ap- 
perception. It is an active unity and a synthetic energy. It 
unifies, and always unifies. It links perception to perception; 
correlating with one another, interpreting one by the other; 
estimating the knowledge value of one by the rest. It thus 
apperceives. It is the faculty of association and consociation 
of ideas ; but the association is an inward and ideal union. The 
one idea inter-penetrates and fuses with the other, even while 
it remains distinct. 

Kant's work may be described in its first stage as analysis 
and a criticism of experience. The term experience is an am- 
biguous one. It sometimes means what has been called the 
raw material of experience, the crude and undigested mass of 
poured-in matters of knowledge. If there be such a shapeless 
lump anywhere, which has to be considered presently, it, at 
any rate, is not on Kant's view, properly entitled to the name 
of experience. The given must be felt and apprehended, and, 
to put the point paradoxically, to be felt it must be more than 
felt, it must be perceived. In other words, it must be pro- 
jected, set in space and time, let out of the mere dull inner 
subjectivity of perception. But, again, to be perceived it 
must be appreciated. To be set in time and space it must 
first of all be in the hands of the unifying conciousness, which 
is the lord of time and space. For, in so far as space and time 
mean a place and an order, in so far they mean more than an 



54 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

empty, inconceivable receptacle for bulk of sensation. In the 
same degree do they presuppose an intuitive synthetic genius, 
which is in all its perceptions one and the same — the funda- 
mental original unity of consciousness. This analysis of ex- 
perience is transcendental, beginning with the assumed datum 
— the object of the experience — it shows that this object, which 
is supposed to be there, to exist by itself and wait for percep- 
tion, is created by and in the very act which apprehends it. 
Climbing up and rising above its habitual absorbtion in the 
consciousness of the philosophic observer and analysist, sees 
the thing in the act of making and watches its growth. 

Things are petrified thought, bodies are solidified intelli- 
gence. 

In our search for reality, in our search for substance with 
the science of metaphysics we predicate experience. There is 
limited and unlimited experience, the finite and the infinite ex- 
perience. 

Infinite experience is the absolute. The absolute is not 
substance. It is not reality. It is not personality. It is not 
individuality. The absolute is a condition, a condition of 
united attributes, omnipotence, omnipresence, omnoscene, all 
knowledge, all truth, all justice, all science, all art, all splen- 
dor, all harmony, all unity, all purity, all love, all space and 
time. 

The absolute is not in the universe, nor outside the uni- 
verse, nor behind the universe. The absolute is the universe; 
and just as much as man is of these attributes, just so much he 
is God-like. The finite mind can not comprehend the abso- 
lute only to the extent that he comprehends his attributes. 
As far as we apply those attributes to our daily life so far will 
our work be perfect. 

If we leave out truth and justice, two of the cardinal 
principles of political economy; if we leave out science of the 
greatest good to the greatest number, and the greatest result 
from the least exertion, we violate the atributes of truth, jus- 
tice and science. So you see that Wilhelm Liebknecht's blas- 
phemy leaves out Socialism as well as God. 

The writer in "Catholic Progress" of November 4th quotes 
Professor Herron in the work of March 30th, 1902, as saying: 
"Christianity today stands for what is lowest and basest in 
life." Professor Herron 's degenerated spiritual ideas no more 
disprove Socialism than the outlaw Tracy's conduct disproved 
the moral law. The same might be said of Carl Marx, Angel 
and all the rest. 

It is a wrong course to dig up abnormal spiritual condi- 
tions of a few degenerates to prove or disprove a political 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 55 

science. If Socialism will succeed it will not be because of 
men of these ideas, but in spite of them. 

These men are the result of conditions of the temporal 
power of the church, as the tramp is the result of our present 
commercialism. The various sections of the Christian Church, 
like commercial interests, come in competition with each other. 
The more members they can get to join their particular church 
the stronger they are and the more favors they can claim. 
These selfish interests are liable to make them discry any varia- 
tion there may be in the different churches. 

To illustrate I quote from a magazine called "Christianity 
in Earnest," speaking of a Methodist convention in Phila- 
delphia : 

"MISSIONARY CONVENTION, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 

"October 14th, 1903. 

"Difficulties at Home in the World's Evangelization. 

"Address by James King, D. D. 

"What are some of the obstacles which inject difficulties 
into the solution of the problem of the world's evangelization? 
Before enumerating some of the difficulties which will be pat- 
ent to all in the way of evangelizing this home land, I desire 
to speak plainly concerning what I esteem to be one of the 
chief obstacles, if not the chief barrier in the path of the prog- 
ress of evangelical Christianity, and I propose to speak the 
more plainly because of what I esteem to be the excuseless sen- 
sitiveness upon the subject. I mean the first difficulty — an 
emasculated, hypnotized, compromising and cowardly Protest- 
antism, in the face of Romanism. 

"Protestantism is either an abiding protest against the 
mummeries of the blasphemy and assumption of Romanism or 
it is stealing an heroic history and pregnant name as a. guise 
of respectability to which it has no honest claim. 

"The recent fulsome eulogies of the late Leo XIII. by 
Protestants, and notably by Methodist preachers, have fur- 
nished both an amusing and nauseating spectacle. The attacks 
on Protestantism, and especially on Methodism, in Rome and 
in Italy by the pope 'are notorious, and the seekers after popu- 
larity and notoriety have secured the end of their reach by put- 
ting obstacles in the path of honest and trusting believers. 

"The eulogized , pope claimed to be the vicar of Christ on 
earth ; claimed infallibility, and was absolutely, from childhood 
to death, under Jesuit education and control, with a reign as 
intolerant as any of his predecessors for a century. The papal 
religion means bondage, degradation and bondage. The 



56 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

Protestant reformation, warring against anti-Christ, purchased 
for us all our civil and religious liberties at a cost of blood and 
martyrdom. 

"The papacy perverts the Gospel and the pope heads the 
perversion. It is not the province of Protestantism when it 
remembers its heredity to take to its bosom a serpent and 
warm the viper into life that it may use with vigor its deadly 
sting. 

"This evident ignorance of our cowardly compromise with 
Romanism is one of the principal obstacles in the way of evan* 
gelizing this new home world. It robs Protestantism of its 
courage and aggressive power and gives the rank and file of 
Protestant believers and adherents to understand there is no 
distinct and irreconcilable differences between a pure and a 
false faith, and thus paralyzes individual service and arrests 
individual sacrifice. Let the representatives of this difficulty 
in the path of the world's evangelization at home get out of 
the way, and be honest enough to go to Rome, where they 
normally belong. Leo XIII., whom these Protestant preachers 
eulogized and virtually adored, is supposed to be struggling in 
purgatory, but Pius X. will accept of their adorations and gra- 
ciously permit them to practice osculatory office upon his sacred 
ecclesiastical toe. 

"Oh, my brethren, is the Protestantism of our times be- 
reft of reason? Is it ashamed of its hereditary! Let us pray 
for the baptism of self-respect, of common honesty, and com- 
mon sense, and while we exercise charity toward all men let 
not our charity furnish a mantle to cover sin or to provide a 
dagger for the assassination of Christian faith. 

"If the utterances of many Protestant ministers are true, 
then let us be honest enough with our missionaries to Roman 
Catholic countries and tell the people whose money we have 
taken for missionary work in these countries, that we have de-, 
frauded them, and promptly return their money to them. This 
will be simply common honesty. But if the Roman Catholic 
Church has been in history and is today a politico-ecclesiastical 
conspiracy, against the liberties of mankind, let us say so. 

"Let us have some authoritative and clear statement of 
the distinctive difference of doctrine between Protestantism 
and Romanism. Unquestioned belief in something vital and 
necessary to salvation is indispensable. 

"The kind of Christian faith that sees no difference be- 
tween Protestantism and Romanism possesses no virility in 
conviction, and consequently no spirit of sacrifice. The lauda- 
tion of the work and character of Leo XIII., with all he rep- 
resented, is the result either of ignorance or a spiritless concep- 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 57 

tion of genuine Christianity. What an admirable basis for 
aggressive missionary work to save a lost world this kind of 
stuff furnishes. ' ' 

Methodists, as a class, are as intelligent as any class of 
people in the country, and perhaps have more love for one an- 
other than the average sect, and probably are a little preju- 
diced towards other sects, but jealousy exists between all re- 
ligions, though they believe in the same God and Savious ; have 
the same Bible, the same Ten Commandments, and all believe in 
the Christ who said, "Love thy neighbor." Nevertheless, there 
are times and places that hatred is so intense that one would 
almost suppose one worshiped God and the other worshiped 
the devil. This is one great cause of 60 per cent of the people 
being outside the churches. One thing is noticeable : the most 
strict member of any church is most liable to be prejudiced, 
and one result of the 60 per cent is that it keeps a check on the 
prejudice. 

Remove the competition and you remove the prejudice. 
The present system of running churches is not fair to the mem- 
bers at large, or the ministers. The ministers, except in some 
wealthy parishes, where they have a stipulated salary, have to 
take what they can collect from the people, and one-half of 
those are not willing to pay for the protection that the influ- 
ence of the church throws about them. 

WHY EVERY MAN SHOULD SUPPORT THE CHURCH. 

Established churches draw immigration, and that raises 
the price of real estate. But the real estate man will say: "I 
do not belong to any church, I will not support it. ' ' Then the 
services of the minister are paid by what the members of the 
church, individually, think they ought to give him. Some will 
give liberally; some will give more than their share, and some 
members, very "good Christians," are perfectly willing to let 
some one else pay for their salvation. They take the old man's 
advice to his son : "Get money; get it honestly if you can, but 
get it." They think their Heavenly Father does not care how 
they get salvation as .long as they get it. It is not fair to ex- 
pect a man to live on what people individually feel like paying 
him. It makes a man feel like a beggar to live off what people 
think they ought to give him. 

If a minister joins the army and becomes a chaplain he 
has a rank and draws his pay with every other officer. He does 
not pass around his hat from soldier to soldier to get a nickel 
or dime, or perhaps the horselaugh. 



58 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

CHURCHES AND MORAL TRAINING PROTECT SOCIETY. 

Why can there not be some plan in civil life, so that these 
most needed members of society may subsist without going 
from door to door or passing around the hat ? We meet men 
every day, physically and mentally good men, and some of our 
best business men, who will be proud to tell you that their 
fathers and mothers were devout Catholics or strict Presby- 
terians, or dyed-in-the-wool Methodists; but they themselves 
do not take any stock in the old style religion. They have 
studied the noted and distinguished works of Spencer, Tom 
Paine, Bob Ingersoll, or "Huckleberry Finn." These men are 
not aware that they owe their good physique, their mental and 
business ability, to the moral training of their good parents. 
Their children may not look back with pride on them, nor have 
the physical and mental vigor of their grandparents. This 
leaves the burden of all the moral teaching on about one-third 
of the people, and in a great many cases on those who are least 
able to bear the burden. There is no monejr expended that 
the public gets so much returns from as that spent for moral 
training. 

It makes no difference what laws you place on the statute 
books if they are not enforced ; no good can result. 

For example, I will cite a case that came to my notice. 

MRS. TOUTENBAUGH. 

About six years ago a man and his wife came to my place 
from Colorado, Mr. and Mrs. Toutenbaugh. They had a child, 
a boy 7 years old, his disposition as bright and sunny as his 
golden hair — a beautiful seal on the most loosely contracted 
matrimony. They had not been long in town when a woman, 
a divorced widow, some relation to Mr. T., called on them, and 
called very often. She appeared to be very much interested 
in Mr. T. and occasionally would be seen parading the streets 
and eating in the restaurants with him, and Mrs. T. was left 
out. After standing that for about a year, Mrs. T. became al- 
most a physical wreck and silently packed her trunk and with 
her child went back to Colorado. Mr. T. was working for a 
firm in Seattle and could be seen any evening with the di- 
vorced widow, flaunting their brazen conduct on the streets. 
About this time the firm he was working for gave him to un- 
derstand that he would have to take care of his wife if he con- 
tinued in their employ. Thereupon he sent for Mrs. T., who 
came back to face another year's hell. For weeks at a time he 
would stay with the widow and finally told his wife he did not' 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 59 

want her, but preferred the other woman, and she need not 
hang around him and could get a divorce, and if she troubled 
him much more she might get some cold lead. So she packed 
up again and went back to Colorado. She had been there but 
seven months when Mr. T. got sick, underwent an operation, 
and sent for his wife a second time, promising all kinds of good 
behavior. Mrs. T. returned, thinking there was a chance left 
to save her husband, who promised to be ever faithful. "When 
the devil is sick the devil a saint would be, but when the devil 
is well the devil a saint is he. ' ' 

About this stage of the game the widow got desperate, 
procured a gun, and went out after some one. One night 
about midnight she went to the rooms where Mr. T. and his 
family lived and was going to shoot the whole business. Mr. 
T. was prostrate on his back and could not make any resist- 
once. She told Mrs. T. to get out or she would kill her and 
her child, and, pointing her gun at Mr. T., told him if he did not 
send them back to Colorado she would shoot him, too. Mrs. 
T. left with her child and came to my place between 12 and 1 
o'clock and got us out of bed. I advised Mrs. T. to call an 
officer, but she was afraid to. She said that Mr. T. always told 
her that if she ever called an officer he would kill her. 

The next morning Mrs. T. ventured back. She nursed her 
husband until he got quite well, but was afraid to stay in the 
rooms, as the widow had threatened her life. She asked me if 
I would allow her to move to my place. I said that I did not 
thing Mr. T. a very desirable roomer, but for her sake, if it 
would help her, I would rent her rooms. 

The case up to this time had extended over five years. 
We had watched Mrs. T. through all her trouble. She had 
come to my wife with her troubles, who did all she could for 
her and sympathized with her. Mrs. T. was an exceptionally 
noble character, a royal good neighbor, a faithful wife, and a 
loving mother. Her only fault was in loving a man who was 
unfaithful to her and who abused her. She was advised to 
get a divorce, but she was not of the divorcing kind. She 
would talk of the disgrace it would put upon her child. 

Mr. T. got well and they moved to my place, and Mr. T. 
went to work again. Things went smoothly for about two 
months, when Mr. T. and the widow were in loving embrace 
again. 

About this time Mrs. T. was a fit subject for an asylum, 
and Willie, her little boy, from sympathizing with his mother 
and a continued dread of the widow's gun, grew pale and nerv- 
ous, and joy and childish pleasure moved far from him. After 
the episode in their former rooms, Mr. T. warned the widow not 



60 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

to go near his family again, but the widow was playing no 
sentimental game. One night she came around and, entering 
through the back door, got into the room where Mrs. T. and her 
child were sleeping with the light dimly burning. She drew 
her gun, and, pointing it at Mrs. T., asked her where Mr. T. was. 
About that time Mr. T. walked in at the front door and said: 
"I told you not to come here." The widow said: "Perhaps 
you will put me out!" at the same time turning the revolver 
and firing two shots at him, one taking effect below the first rib. 

When I heard the shots I ran downstairs, found Mr. T. 
lying on the floor with the blood running from his wound, and 
his wife leaning over his prostrate form. The widow was at 
the other end of the room with the gun in her hand, and when 
the patrol came up she told the officer she shot him and would 
shoot him again. 

Mr. T. was taken to the hospital, where he laid ten weeks, 
ever attended by his faithful wife. The widow was sent to 
jail for three weeks, when she was turned loose on straw bail. 

When Mr. T. got well it was evident that he would not 
prosecute the widow. So Mrs. T. was advised to file a com- 
plaint against her for shooting her husband and threatening 
her life and the life of her child. I went with her to the prose- 
cuting attorney's office. They very reluctantly allowed her to 
file her complaint. They told her that Mr. T. was opposed to 
prosecuting the woman. I asked the prosecuting attorney to 
listen to her story, but he was too busy. For six weeks Mrs. 
T. tried to get her case before the court, but they kept putting 
her off, and finally told her she had no case and she could get 
$200 to settle or withdraw her suit. Mrs. T. said that would 
not save her life or the life of her child. The woman was loose 
and would not hesitate to kill her, but she got no satisfaction. 
I then advised her to see some other attorney. I went with 
her to the law firm of Kane & MacCafferty, as able and upright 
a firm as there is in the state of Washington. Mr. Kane listened 
intelligently, judiciously and sympathetically through her tears 
and hysteric sobs. He said: "Mrs. Tautenbaugh, have you 
any money?" "Not much." "Have you any property?" 
"Yes, we have a homestead in Colorado. It is in my name. 
Mr. T. has tried to make me sell it, but I knew if we did we 
would have nothing left." Mr. Kane said: "Sign no papers. 
Now, Mrs. Tautenbaugh, you say your husband is opposed to 
you in this case. This woman has a firm of attorneys after you. 
You say the prosecuting attorney will not move in the case and 
they are against you, and this woman is still at large. My ad- 
vice to you is to take your child and get out of town." 

That evening Mrs. T. packed her trunk, took her child and 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 61 

went back to eke out a living for the two on a lonely ranch in 
western Colorado. 

I relate this story to show that it makes no difference what 
laws we have on the statute books if the moral law is not be- 
hind them. Let us take the case of Mrs. T., where all the ma- 
chinery, judicial, municipal and military of this city, and this 
commonwealth, which should be thrown around to protect the 
lives, property and freedom of the people. This woman, whose 
only sin was that she loved too well but not wisely, and her 
child, being run out of this city by a revolver in the hands of a 
prostitute furnishes a problem for this city and commonwealth 
to solve. 

PROSECUTING ATTORNEY'S OFFICE. 

The county attorney's office in this city has been the hole 
in the wall for every bunco man, big-mit man, hold-up man, 
confidence man, crook, pimp and prostitute. If there have 
been any sent over the road you may be sure they had neither 
money nor political pull. The trouble with that office is that 
the system is wrong, especially for men of no moral character. 
There is an incentive to convict a criminal, but a great deal of 
the work sometimes to convict is wasted, the attorney's pay be- 
ing the same whether he convicts or not, and if he is open for 
bribe there is a hundred chances to one that the criminal will 
be turned loose. 

A man who would listen to Mrs. T.'s story, knowing that 
her life and the life of her child were in danger, and then 
would not act must be a hoary-headed perverter of social and 
moral law. I can only describe such a man in the words of 
Brand of the "Iconoclast:" "If he were sired by the devil, 
damned by Sicrarocks and born in hell, he would be an insult to 
his parents and a disgrace to his country." 

MINISTERS PAID BY THE STATE. 

The strong desire for the separation of church and state 
arises from a desire to shirk responsibility through taxation. 
Where the moral teaching is a public benefit, it should be a 
public tax. It should be appropriated the same as a school 
fund, pro rata to each sect, paid as the divisions of an army is 
paid and supplied. This would destroy that jealousy that 
tends to destroy their influence. 

If an ignorant person read the address of the distinguished 
Methodist at the convention at Philadelphia and hears the 



62 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

Catholic preach that there is no salvation outside that church, 
he will probably feel like the darkey down South who heard 
his darkey preacher say : ' ' Strait am de path and crooked am 
de road dat leads to damnation." The darkey said to the 
preacher: "Boss, if dat. am de case, I reckon dis darkey will 
have to take to de woods." 

We have some new sects which have sprung up in the last 
half century. There is Spiritualism, Christian Science and 
TheosOphy. Some will say these are frauds, but Professor Hud- 
son has said that those who say there is nothing to them are 
ignorant of the laws of psychic phenomena. Each is volumi- 
nous in detail beyond any space that could be given in this 
paper. 

MARTIN AND MARTINISM. 

There is a new sect that has lately appeared in the firma- 
ment of religion. We have heard no name for that star, but, 
as a Mr. Martin is the Moses who discovered it, we will call it 
Martinism. This man came to Seattle some seven years ago 
with the star of Bethlehem in his grip in the shape of a volume 
of Herbert Spencer. He holds forth at Christensen's Hall. 
You will see at his meetings Sunday evenings a class of people 
with the average intelligence and apparently well to do, with a 
large sprinkling of purse-proud Jews. He tells them that he 
has learned from the scientific writings of Herbert Spencer that 
Christ was not divine and that theology from stem to gudgeon 
is all a grand fake; that Mr. Spencer had traced history and 
tradition beyond the doom of Atlantis down through the twelve 
Egyptian dynasties through the Uphanashad, the sacred writ- 
ings of the Hindoos, fifteen hundred years before the Christian 
history and down through the Vedanta, the New Testament of 
Buddha, six hundreds years before the Christian era, and had 
discovered that the twenty centuries of Christian religious in- 
struction was all moonshine. 

He talks about Christ as being a pretty good kind of a 
man, but he was no more to be compared to Mr. Spencer as a 
gieat shining light than a white bean in a coon ear could be 
compared to the earth's luminary. He would throw out the 
bold and defiant assertion that he defied man to show him 
where theology ever taught the science of evolution or natural 
selection. He would then call their attention to the closely de- 
fined line between the organic and inorganic law, as if there 
were any line of demarkation in the evolution of matter. And 
there was Moses. He knew nothing about natural selection, 
the survival of the fittest or how man came to be related to the 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 63 

monkey. But the sheeney thinks that he has made a good trade 
when he got Martin for Moses — "he is all vool and a yard 
vide." 

Mr. Martin contends that he is teaching universal religion, 
but that all other religions are universally damned. 

This man gave one of his noted lectures at Christensen's 
Hall Christmas eve, Dec. 25, 1904. Speaking of what he terms 
the false possession and false doctrine of the Christian church, 
theology and theological dogmna and its false teachers, he said, 
with all the vehement and gesture of a political curbstone ora- 
tor: "If you are in a business tangle you employ a lawyer; 
if there is anything wrong physically, you employ a doctor; if 
you want to laugh you hire a joker or go to the theater, but if 
your soul is sick you employ a hypocrite." If there is a Social- 
ist on this side of the Atlantic or the other side I would like 
to hear from him if he can beat that Martin. He preaches evo- 
lution but theology does not evolve. 

We could have universal religion as well as universal edu- 
cation. From primitive man that worships an idol to the 
man that gets his inspiration from the highest philosophy is 
the same in kind but different in degree. Space is not a factor 
in spiritual phenomena. He that is truest to his highest ideal 
will get the highest reward at the tribunal of the absolute. 
There are all stages of spirituality, from the savage infant to 
the Masarien. There are all stages in all ages. In universal 
education the student of the high school must not look down 
on the lower grades as inferior or demoralizing. The univer- 
sity graduate must not look back on the high school with 
scorn and condemnation, It is like unto a great structure 
where the man that is working up toward the crown mould 
looks down with scorn on the man that laid the mud sill or the 
man that builds the superstructure. Primitive man laid the 
foundation of religion. We are all working in the same struc- 
ture. Man was not made for religion ; religion is intended for 
man's spiritual guide. 

At the same time we must allow every man to worship God 
according to the dictates of his own conscience. I simply men- 
tion these facts that the church press may see there are other 
elements, opposed to their way of worship, than the Socialist, 
which they have taken the trouble to search out in foreign 
countries. 

The state has the same right and the capacity and the same 
wisdom to conduct and build churches as it has to build and 
conduct schools, universities and colleges, and can do it 
larger, better and grander, cheaper and faster, and make who- 
ever gets the benefit pay his share. 



64 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

That plan would stop that un-Christian-like practice of one 
misrepresenting- the other. It would be justice to all; it would 
be the greatest good to the greatest number and the greatest 
result from the least exertion. That is why we would like to 
see Socialism. 

THE GRANDEN FARM. 

The day of the one-horse business is fast passing away. 
All farming can be done on a large scale. The Granden farm 
in North Dakota has 27,000 acres in wheat every year. They 
raise wheat at a cost of 35 cents per bushel. When wheat 
dropped to 50 cents per bushel all the small farmers lost money. 
The Granden farm that year earned $125,000 over and above 
expenses. Every branch of farming can be worked on the 
same scale. That would be the greatest result from the least 
exertion. 

GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP. 

You ask the mail service what they will carry a package 
for, then ask the express companies what they will charge for 
carrying that same package the same distance. Everything 
can be done on the same scale when it is run by the govern- 
ment and out of the hands of the grafter. 

You ask the Socialist, "Why don't you formulate some 
line of action ?" You are like the man who could not see 
the town for houses. You are like the colt that swam the 
river to get a drink. 

Do you see the street you walk on; do you see the water 
you drink; do you see the park; do you see the schools, uni- 
versities, asylums and states' prisons; do you see the post- 
office ; do you see the city, county and state government ; do 
you see the army and navy ; do you see all rivers and harbors ; 
do you see our national government, and our relations with 
other governments? Now, if there is anything left that you 
can see it can be run on the same scale. Then I will ask you 
why can it not and why should it not be run by the govern- 
ment? The Socialists think it can, and it will. All these 
things I have mentioned are run cheaper and better than if 
they were run by individuals on the competitive, cut-throat 
plan. Every one is satisfied with the way these departments 
are conducted. No one wants to give them over to individuals 
to run. 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 65 

"SOCIAL SWITZERLAND." 

(A work by William Herbert Dawson, wherein he describes 
the social movement in that country.) 

Switzerland has a population of 177.10 to the square mile, 
while the United States has a population of less than 14 to the 
square mile. It may be well to glance at their social system, 
as it may be hard for Americans to comprehend the science 
necessary for subsistence where there is so dense a population. 

Mr. Dawson says : "I do not think it needs any apology.' 7 
The investigation, of which it is a record, was undertaken in 
the hope and belief that the experience of Switzerland, in not 
a few directions of Social reform, would prove of assistance 
in our own country, by throwing light, not, indeed, upon any 
problems, for these are clear and plain to view, but on the 
treatment of them. Those who have taken the trouble to ob- 
serve and inquire must have been impressed by the boldness 
and originality which the cantonal and municipal governments 
of the Swiss Republic have shown of late years in its manifold 
excursions into the field of social reform. There, as here and 
everywhere, new social ideas and forces are at work softening 
the human relationship in various ways between rich and poor ; 
between employer and employed; between governing and gov- 
erned. I believe we may learn much from the ameliorative 
movements which are going on so close to our doors. The con- 
ditions to some extent are different, but the problems them- 
selves are the same. Therefore I place this record of other 
people's doings in one of the most important departments of 
political and economic activity at the service of statesmen and 
social students at home, and of all who believe that the peace 
and happiness and the progress of society can best, nay alone, 
be obtained by the way of organic reform, trusting that it 
will at least reform where it need not stimulate. 

THE LABOR LAW OF THE CANTON. 

The existing federal factory legislation of Switzerland 
substantially dates from March 23, 1877, and was adopted by 
virtue of a clause introduced into the federal constitution of 
1874, giving the confederation the right to enact uniform reg- 
ulations upon the work of children in factories, upon the dura- 
tion of the work of adults therein and for the protection of 
working people employed in unhealthy and dangerous indus- 
tries. 

The administration of these laws is in the hands of the 



66 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

federal government, the cantonal authorities and the factory 
inspectors together. The last are three in number, and to 
them the country is divided into three circuits, as follows: 
First Circuit — Comprising the Cantons of Zurich, Uri, Schwyz, 
Obwalden, Midwalden, Glarus, Zug, St. Gaul, Greson. Second 
— Berne, Freiburg, Greino, Vaud, Valais, Neuchatel and Gen- 
eva. Third — Berne, Lucerne, Soleure, Balse, Urban, Bural, 
Sheaphausen, the Appenzello, Aurgan and Gurgan. For many 
years the factory inspectors had been Dr. G. Shuler for the 
First Circuit, Dr. H. Rausenbaugh the Second, and M. M. 
Chanpiche the Third. 

To come to the factory act itself: According to its orig- 
inal terms the act applies to all industrial establishments in 
which a more or less considerable number of people are occu- 
pied simultaneously and regularly out of their dwellings and 
in a closed building. Such buildings were to be denominated 
factories for the purpose of the act, and when there was un- 
certainty as to the application of the covering clause the fed- 
eral government was and has to determine the matter without 
reference to the government of the canton in which the con- 
cern was situated. 

The obscurity of the definition of a factory soon led to 
difficulty and it was found necessary to resort to a more ob- 
vious description. In accordance with the wishes of the gov- 
ernment June 3rd, 1897, the word is now accepted as indicat- 
ing any industrial establishment employing more than five peo- 
ple or employing persons under 18 years of age and working 
with machine power or offering possible danger to the health 
or life of the employed, otherwise the requisite number of em- 
ployes to constitute a concern or factory is eleven or upwards. 
In June, 1895, the number of factories amenable to the federal 
law was 4933. It now exceeds 5000. 

The essential provisions of the act are the following : It 
is required that all work rooms and machinery shall be kept 
in such a state as shall not be injurious to the life or health of 
the work people. The light and ventilation must be ample ; all 
dangerous parts of machinery must be carefully guarded and 
in general all measures be taken which science and invention 
suggest for lessening the risk and injury. When an accident 
occurs, whether fatal or not, the employer must at once report 
it to the local authority, competent in the matter, who shall 
institute an inquiry into the whole circumstances and inform 
the cantonal government of the facts. The legal liability of 
the factory owner in regard to the incident extends to all in- 
juries sustained by the employees which have been caused the 
latter in the discharge of their duties, or by the fault of the 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 67 

managers, overseers or other representative officials, unless it 
can be proved that the accident was due to unpreventable cause 
or to negligence of the victim. In the latter event the employer 
does not necessarily escape scott free, but the compensation 
awardable is proportionately reduced. All factory regulations 
as to the conditions and hours of work, payment of wages, fines,- 
etc., must be submitted to the cantonal government, which first 
takes the opinion thereon of the work people. In this connec- 
tion it is laid down that no fine may exceed half a day's wages 
and the sum thus retained by the employer must be used for 
the benefit of the work people, and particularly in provision 
for sick relief. Deductions from wages for defective work or 
waste of raw material do not, however, count as fines. In the 
absence of a written agreement to the contrary, at least 14 
days' notice is necessary to the event of determining employ- 
ment on either side, though it is often longer. It is especially 
laid down that employers shall see to the due observance of 
good manners and regard for the proprieties in their work 
rooms. Employers must in general pay their work people at 
least once a fortnight, in legal tender, and on the factory 
premises. 

The law fixes a normal day of ten hours, and that period 
must elapse between the hours of 5 a. m. and 8 p. m. in the 
months of June, July and August, and 6 a. m. and 8 p. m. during 
the remainder of the year. 

Women are afforded special protection by the law. In 
their case Sunday and night work is forbidden under all cir- 
cumstances. Also, when they have household duties to per- 
form, they may leave half an hour before noon, unless the mid- 
day pause be an hour and a half. The provisions affecting 
women in childbirth are in themselves rigidly enforced. A 
close time is laid down, before and after childbirth, extending 
in all eight weeks, which shall be observed, during which they 
shall not be allowed to work, nor may they be admitted to the 
factory without proof that six weeks has passed since con- 
finement. Moreover the Federal Council reserves the right alto- 
gether to prohibit the employment of pregnant women in cer- 
tain branches of industry. As a matter of fact these provisions 
are a dead letter as far as relates to the period before confine- 
ment. Women so circumstanced generally insist on earning 
money as long as possible, and only when a slight payment is 
made to them during absences, are they willing to stay away. 
Children under the age of 14 completed years may not legally 
be employed in factories, and in the case of those between 15 
and 16 years of age the time required for education and re- 



68 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

ligious instructions may not be sacrificed to work in the fac- 
tories. 

The form of expression observed here is significant. In 
regard to child labor indeed Switzerland continues to occupy 
a unique position. The federal labor delegate to the Berlin 
Labor Congress of 1890 strenuously endeavored to string the 
rest of the states there represented up to the same year, 14, 
but in vain, and 12 years was declared by the congress to be 
a fitting age at which to introduce a child to factory life, 
though 10 years is the case in southern countries. Notwith- 
standing that the law is so decided and solicitous, cases are 
occasionally found in all the circuits, of employment of chil- 
dren under the protected age. A careful lookout is kept, how- 
ever, by the inspectors and their assistants and the offenders 
are strictly dealt with. Again, no juveniles under 18 years of 
age can be employed at night or on Sunday, though in the 
case of industries requiring intermittent work, boys of from 
14 to 18 may be so employed, if it appears to be indispensable 
to both the work and the technical training of the boys them- 
selves. But here the Federal Council lays down special regu- 
lations as to the number of hours and the health of the young 
workers. 

Finally any and every infringement of the law renders 
the aggressor liable to a fine of from 5 to 500 francs and in case 
of repeated infringements of the law to imprisonment up to 
three months. 

The census elucidated a further noteworthy fact : The 
steady and rapid tendency towards centralization of industry. 
This takes two directions, says the report. On the one hand 
large concerns employing 500 or more work people gain more 
and more ascendency. Their number increases every year, and 
to a large extent they swallow up the dependent business of 
all kinds. The large embroidery manufacturer has his own 
lithographer, his own bookbinder, and his own cabinet maker. 
The printer includes in his business every possible branch of 
the polygraphic arts and has, too, his type founder and his 
bookbinders. This tendency is visible on all hands and tends 
more than anything else to drive everything to special indus- 
trial centers and especially to the towns. This is a factor which 
cannot be ignored if one would understand the course of de- 
velopment which Swiss industry is following more and more. 

The wages paid to the Swiss working classes fall much 
below the standard common in this country in spite of the 
longer hours worked. That there is great room for improve- 
ment here is proved by the fact that quite lately the silk ribbon 
weavers of Basle struck work for minimum wages of 3s and 4d 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 69 

per day. The coopers of Lucerne struck for minimum wages 
of 3s and 9d per day, and the masons ask for 4s per day, while 
the carpenters and builders of Berne threatened to strike for 
a normal pay of ^^d an hour or 3s and 9d per day, which was 
amicably conceded. 

The success of such strikes in Switzerland, where there are 
not the powerful trades union organizations which are found 
in England, would be far oftener uncertain than is the case 
were it not for the influence of the democratic spirit prevalent, 
which seems to cause the public to take sides with the strikers 
almost as a matter of course, and sometimes without regard to 
the right or wrong of the dispute. As a strike oddity may be 
mentioned an incident which occurred during a strike of watch- 
makers in the canton of Soleure in the spring of 1895. When 
the struggle was at its heighth the communal assembly of one 
village affected voted £20 a week to the support of the strikers. 
The employers appealed to the cantonal government, which 
ruled that the commune was within its rights so long as help 
was not withheld from other destitute or needy persons not 
concerned in the dispute. 

It would be wrong to conclude, however, that industrial 
difficulties are commoner in Switzerland than elsewhere. Some 
figures on the duration of service in the third circuit recently 
prepared by the factory inspector attest not only friendly re- 
lationship but the attachment of the Swiss workman to his 
home. Of the employees in the cotton spinning mills of this 
circuit 10.3 per cent had worked from 20 to 30 years in the 
same concern, 3.6 per cent from 30 to 40 years, 1.3 per cent 
from 40 to 50 years, and .3 per cent over 50 years. In the cot- 
ton weaving mills 17.4 per cent had worked from 20 to 30 
years in the same concern, 3.8 per cent from 30 to 40 years, 
.8 per cent from 40 to 50 years and .2 per cent over 50 years, 
and equal percentage was shown in other industries. 

It ought to be stated that there is on the part of the work- 
ing classes, especially in the larger industrial centers, a cer- 
tain dissatisfaction at the manner in which some of the pro- 
visions of the factory acts are disregarded by the employers, 
and secret committees of the operatives exist in a number of 
towns charged with the duty of watching the act. Cases of 
infraction are reported to them and they in turn communicate 
either with the factory inspector, the workmen's secretary or 
other competent officials. Sufficient has been said to demon- 
strate that the dissatisfaction is not altogether groundless. 

In the new constitution of Gaul, adopted November 16, 
1890, there was introduced the clause: "The state shall pro- 
tect the labor power, particularly that of women and children 



70 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

which are employed in such trades and industries as do not 
come under the federal legislation." Yet the canton has not 
done more to give effect to so excellent a principle than has 
some canton which lacked the spur and encouragement of a 
constitutional revision. 

The second part of the clause applies to shop assistants 
and public house employees. As to the former, no restriction 
of daily hours of work is made, except that ten hours of unin- 
terrupted rest shall be secured to them. Simularly there is no 
prohibition of Sunday trading beyond the requirement that 
employees who work on Sunday shall be given an equal amount 
of free time during the week. The employees of the public 
refreshment houses do not fare even so well as this. No limi- 
tation is placed on their hours of work save that they may be 
allowed eight hours of unbroken rest, and that in return for 
Sunday service they shall have half a day free during the 
week. For the rest they may be employed in the evening to the 
legal hours of closing. Girls under 18 years of age who do not 
belong to the landlord's family may not be employed in regu- 
lar service. 

SWISS WORKMEN'S SECRETARY. 

The Swiss Republic has no Federal Department of State 
answering exactly to the labor department of England or the 
department of the United States. There is a department for 
industry and agriculture, but it does not profess to concern 
itself particularly with questions relating to the laboring 
classes, whether these belong to the factory, the handicraft or 
the land. In the lack of such a distinct ministry of state the 
official or rather semi-official institution known as the Swiss 
workmen's secretary was called into existence ten years ago, 
and though working under the difficulties which are insepar- 
able from private action, it has supplied the vacancy with no 
small measure of success. The workmen's secretary is a unique 
creation, without parallel in any other state, and the history 
of this functionary deserves a prominent place in any record 
of Swiss experiments in social reform. In August of 1886 the 
central committee of the Gruitliverein by formal petition re- 
quested the Federal Department of Commerce and Agriculture 
to subsidize a labor agency, which it proposed to establish, and 
to work in connection with the association, and with the peti- 
tion was forwarded the proposed organization of the same. It 
was no innovation, for the government already contributed 
towards the salaries of the secretaries who had been appointed.- 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 71 

by private organizations to protect the interests of agriculture 
industry and trade. The committee at the same time gave the 
assurance that the money which might be voted would not be 
used in defraying the administrative expenses of the Gruit- 
liverein, nor be put to political purposes, but would be em- 
ployed solely in the study and furtherance of the economic in- 
terests of the working classes without regard to political or 
sectarian parties and motives. 

The petition was received in a friendly and indeed a cor- 
dial manner by the department, which nine days later signi- 
fied its perfect approval of the object avowed by the Gruit- 
liverein, and assented to its request for state help in their 
furtherance. 

Between that time and the meeting of the Federal As- 
sembly in autumn the scheme of the central committee ex- 
panded. The idea took hold of the working classes generally 
throughout the land; other labor organizations joined hands 
with the Gruitliverein and it was determined that the proj- 
ected labor bureau should partake of a national character. To 
this the government also agreed and before the end of the 
year the desired subvention had been sanctioned and the 
amount for the first year fixed at 5000 francs. The govern- 
ment, however, laid down the conditions that for the manage- 
ment of the bureau a committee should be formed representa- 
tive of all associations of Swiss workingmen proportionately 
to their membership, and that the secretary should be chosen 
by this committee. These conditions were agreed to and forth- 
with candidates for office were invited, the test of fitness be- 
ing the preparation of the best drafted program of work for 
the new agency. That of Herman Greulich, a statistician of 
repute, of Zurich was accepted and it was duly submitted to 
the government for approval. A congress of labor delegates 
representing 142 organizations and 100,000 workingmen, and 
all the cantons, was held in Aargan in April, 1887, under the 
presidency of the central president of the Gruitliverein and by 
this congress Herr Greulich was elected for a term of three 
years, and the definite organization of the Sekretariat was 
formulated — a work in which Herr A. Sherrer, advocate of St. 
Gaul, took a prominent part. The new official was by statute 
made subject to a premanent representative organization of 
Swiss labor. 

For the common representation of the economic interests 
of the laboring class in Switzerland ran the first resolution 
adopted by the congress and the labor associations of the 
county formed a union known as the Swiss Workingmen 's 
Federation. Any and every association devoted to the interests 



72 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

of labor, a majority of whose members were bona fide Swiss 
workingmen was qualified for affiliation and all federated as- 
sociations were to bind themselves to co-operate with the cen- 
tral organization in all its operations. The organs of the Fed- 
eration were the Swiss Labor Congress, the Council of the Fed- 
eration, the Executive and the Workingmen 's Secretary. 

To anticipate, the Federations and its sections continue 
today as formed. The congress meets every three years and is 
elected by the allied associations, each of which has the right 
to send one delegate, though his right depends on his represent- 
ing 250 members, which necessitates the grouping of the smaller 
associations with a view to the voting power. 

The council consists of 25 members chosen by the congress 
for a period of three years. They must be Swiss citizens and 
at least two-thirds workingmen. In the constitution of the 
council regard has to be had to due representation of all the 
languages spoken, and the chief industries carried on in the 
country, and the council must meet at least once a year. 

The executive consists of three members of the council 
resident in the same town or locality, and it likewise is elected 
for three years. 

The Workmen's Secretary is elected by the congress for 
the same term. He must be a Swiss citizen and must work-sub- 
ject to the instructions of the council, and more especially to 
the executive. The statutes of the Federation also provide that 
the state subsidy shall be applied exclusively to defraying the 
cost of the secretary and his work. All other charges, such as 
those connected with the holding of the congress and the gen- 
eral administrative cost of the Federation, are defrayed by 
the Federated Association. 

The program which Herr Gruelich drew up, and by virtue 
of which he was elected, placed in the first rank of questions 
to be advanced by the new agency the introduction of a com- 
prehensive system of industrial accident insurance as a pre- 
liminary to which the Workmen's Secretary shall prepare 
wages, statistics, a return of the benefits conferred by existing 
sick funds in case of accident and an enumeration of the fac- 
tory and industrial population. The secretary must, however, 
further the economic interests of the labor world in general, in- 
vestigate industrial conditions in all directions, and facilitate 
the realization of the needs and desires of the working classes 
in so far as they are of an economic nature, and fall within the 
rightful province of legislation. 

The work itself describes the work of the secretary as es- 
sentially scientific, while upon the Federation rests the duty of 
assimilating and using the result of his investigations as pre-, 
sented and published from time to time. Neither ,the secretary 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 73 

nor the Federation regard public agitation as part of their 
work ; this is left to the affiliated associations and unions. Thus 
by keeping aloof from agitation they are able to maintain an 
independent position to reserve complete freedom of action 
and to view questions from a moral aspect. Only on rare issues 
does the Federation pretend to come to the front and make a 
decisive and open stand, and is inevitably a weighty step owing 
to the immense force which is behind it. 

The Workmen's Secretary formally entered his functions 
on June 1, 1887. His first proceedings were to place himself 
in communication with the various cantonal governments of 
the country, as well as the labor departments of other states, 
and with private association concerned with industry- com- 
merce, agriculture and social reform in Switzerland; between 
all and with the secretary there has been a regular change of 
ideas when necessary. The first statistical work undertaken 
by him was a preparation of an exhaustive return of wages 
paid in the republic. A good beginning was made, answers 
were forwarded by a large number of employers all over the 
country, but these after all were found to afford but partial 
results and in the absence of means of enforcing the contribu- 
tion of information the scheme had temporarily to be aban- 
doned. Better results were achieved in the preparation of sta- 
tistics of accidents, on which subject two instructive publica- 
tions were issued in 1890 and 1893 at the request of the federal 
department for industry and agriculture. His other publica- 
tions have included a monograph on the institutions of the Paris 
municipal council for the protection of the working classes — the 
result of a visit made in 1889, another on Swiss labor move- 
ments and strikes since 1860 and a paper on the industrial legis- 
lation of foreign states. Though each annual report concerns 
itself with a specific phase of the labor question, the secretary 
has acted several times on committees appointed by the federal 
government to investigate matters affecting the interests of the 
working classes. He is constantly appealed to for advice on 
labor organization and individual working men who find in him 
a convenient intermediatory between themselves and the local 
authorities and the inspectors of the factories, particularly in 
the case of the transgression of the factory acts. 

More than once has he mediated with success in disputes 
between employers and employed and he has on several occa- 
sions prepared statements of the views of the working classes 
touching industrial questions pressed upon the attention of the 
federal government for legislation. 

In 1890 an agitation sprung up in French Switzerland for 
the establishment of an independent workingman's secretary 
for the French speaking part of the country. The special in- 



74 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

terests of these parts had indeed for some time been in the 
hands of French adjuncts, working in the same office with the 
secretary ; the separation was happily overruled and a compro- 
mise was effected and now there are French agents both in Beel 
and Lausanne, though they are subject to the absolute control 
and direction of the workingmen's secretary. 

So far equivocal though the position of the workingmen's 
secretary is, in that he is a private and exclusive advocate of 
the interests of labor in the pay of the government, a state paid 
agent without official standing, the relationship has worked har- 
moniously, and the working classes, at any rate, have reason to 
be satisfied with the arrangement. So indeed the federation 
would appear to be, for since 1888 the subsidy has increased 
from £200 to £1000 in view of the really useful national ser- 
vice which he has rendered. Nor is it likely either legislature 
or government will lightly venture to disturb the understanding 
now existing. Both know that at present, at any rate, the in- 
stitution, irregular though it may be in principle, is popular 
with the great masses, and that the withdrawal of the subsidy 
would be made a test question at the elections. An official labor 
department may indeed be established in time and the general 
opinion of those best able to judge is that there is plenty of 
work for one, for excellent as is the work of the workmen's 
secretary his influence and his usefulness are seriously re- 
tricted owing to the entire lack of legal power, but it will exist 
side by side with the remarkable institutions which now hold 
the field. 

Said Herr Greulich when plied upon the point, "We have 
come to stay." 

SWISS ARBITRATION. 

In Switzerland legislation regarding arbitration between 
employers and employed is left to the cantons individually, and 
during the last few years a number of them have passed either 
compulsory or permissive laws on the subject. As a rule the 
boards and tribunals created to discharge these mediatory func- 
tions have done excellent work, though here and there, as was 
perhaps inevitable in so democratic a country, prejudice in the 
work people's favor has been alleged. The only real failure of 
any moment has occurred in the town of Zurich. On the other 
hand, the experience of the other three large towns of the re- 
public, Basle, Berne and Geneva, has been thoroughly satis- 
factory. 

Industrial courts of arbitration have existed in the urban 
cantons for seven years and they have just passed through the t 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 75 

probation stage. They were established in consonance with a 
law of April 29, 1889. The laAv provides that disputes in civil 
law which arise between the owners of industries, trading and 
manufacturing business and journeymen, apprentices and la- 
borers employed by them concerning the condition of serv- 
ice, shall be finally determined by industrial courts of arbitra- 
tion insofar as the amount in dispute does not exceed the sum 
of 30 francs, and both parties do not demand a decision by the 
ordinary civil courts. 

Ten courts of arbitration have been formed for the follow- 
ing groups of industries and trades: 1, textile industry; 2, 
earth and building works ; 3, wool works ; 4, metal works ; 5, 
clothing and trimming; 6, foodstuffs and the liquor trade gen- 
erally; 7, paper industry and polygraphic industry; 8, chemical 
industry ; 9, transportation system ; 10, trade shops and other 
callings, banks, insurance offices, and employments connected 
with literature, art and science. The employer and the em- 
ployee of every group choose six judges each. These are ap- 
pointed for three years, but they are always eligibile for re- 
election. Managers of concerns, if responsible, rank as em- 
ployers for the purpose of the law. All male employers and 
employed of the age of 24, resident in the canton, who come un- 
der the law, may elect and are eligible to election to the courts, 
but no one can belong to more than one group. 

A court of arbitration is formed of a president of the civil 
courts and two of the elected judges, one an employer and the 
other a workman. The president in every individual case nom- 
inates his colleagues from the judges of the group to which the 
disputing parties belong, having always regarded the nature 
of the dispute and selected the judges as equally as possible. 
The disputants must in general appear in person before the 
court, except in case of sickness and unavoidable absence from 
home or other proved hindrances, they may be absolved; in 
such events the expenses of a deputy cannot be charged to the 
other side. Appeal to the regular courts of law is permitted 
on question of competence. In the event of issues being raised 
during the hearing of a case which lie beyond the competence 
of the court, the latter nevertheless has to decide on the main 
question and execution will be deferred until the ordinary civil 
courts have decided on other points in dispute. The courts 
must meet in an hour of the day which is most convenient to 
the judges and the disputants — as a fact the evening is invari- 
ably chosen. Sittings are held all the year round as required. 
The judges are paid the nominal sum of two francs per sitting. 
No fees are, however, payable to the courts of either side. 

Referring to the recent operations of the courts, I find, from 



76 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

the official report of 1895, that the judges at the end of that year 
numbered 102, a reduction of six in a year. There had been 
an increase in the number of disputes which came before the 
courts, principally from the groups for clothing and trimming 
(5), transportation (9) and retail and miscellaneous trades 
(10). The total number of cases had been 758 against 504 in 
the first year 1890, five having come from the previous 
year; 751 cases had been adjudicated upon and seven were car- 
ried forward. 

Courts of industry charged with the duty of conciliating 
industrial disputes and deciding between their claims, where 
conciliation is impossible, have been in operation in Berne since 
the beginning of 1895. They may be said to have been estab- 
lished by the express wish of the employers and employed 
equally. No sooner had the cantonal decree of February 1, 
1894, upon the organization and procedure of courts, been pub- 
lished than the municipal council issued inquiries to all the 
commercial and labor organizations of the city, as well as to 
private representatives of the principal industries, asking their 
opinion as to the local need of such a method of preventing dis- 
sension between capital and labor. Not only was there no ob- 
jections to the establishment of courts of industry but without 
a single exception the replies urged the council to lose no time 
in calling them into existence. Thus encouraged, President 
Muller and his colleagues at once formulated a scheme suitable 
to the peculiar circumstances of Berne and after being duly 
endorsed by a vote of the citizens, 2985 to 179, it came into oper- 
ation January 1, 1895. For the purpose of the courts of indus- 
try the trades and occupations of the city have been divided 
into groups. For each group 16 referees or assessors have to 
be elected triennially, consisting of half employers and half 
employed, all of course belonging to the trades concerned and 
chosen by their peers. The number, however, can be increased 
to 18 or 20 if the municipal council should be advised that this 
is desirable. An assessor is disqualified from serving if he fails 
to follow his calling a whole year; if he passes from the position 
of employer to that of a workman or vice versa ; . and if he 
ceases to possess the eligibility ; also if he permanently removes 
from the district and if he is guilty of improper conduct. When 
the members of a court are reduced for any reason steps are 
taken by election to fill the vacancies. The assessors elect a 
president and two deputies, who may not be either employer 
or workman. In addition there is a general secretary, whose 
salary may range from £40 to £80, as the municipal council 
may from time to time determine. The president conducts the 
sitting of the various courts and also all plenary sittings, but m* 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 77 

the event of two or more courts sitting together, his deputies 
share the work. It is the duty of the general secretary to re- 
ceive applications for the service of the courts and to take the 
necessary steps to give effect to them as well as to the promul- 
gation of all decisions. The members of the court are paid for 
each sitting, the president and deputies 5 francs each. The 
municipal police are charged with the preparation of the voting 
lists for the various groups and the carrying out of the elec- 
tions. 

The right to appeal within three days is allowed in the 
following cases: First, when the sitting at which judgment 
was pronounced was not made known to the appellant and he 
did not attend. Second, w T hen the court was not legally con- 
stituted. Third, when the appellant was refused a legitimate 
hearing. Fourth, when the unsuccessful party was not capable 
of conducting his own case and had no representative. Fifth, 
when more was awarded to the successful party than was 
claimed. Should the appeal be found reasonable the case is 
again sent to the court, but tried before other judges. It is 
also provided that a case can be reopened by the defeated party 
if it can be shown within one year from the award that new 
and material evidence has come to light. 

This paper is merely a glimpse at that distinguished work, 
"Social Switzerland," by W. H. Dawson, one of the most noted 
economic writers of the nineteenth century. The Swiss laws as 
shown in this work make it the most scientific government in 
the world. If Switzerland should adopt the laws of the United 
States it would annihilate two-thirds of her population by death 
or emigration. Seventy-five per cent of the laws of this country 
are conglomerations of vicious ideas created in legislatures and 
voted on by men too ignorant to comprehend their nature. 

A contest between the vicious and ignorant and the honest 
and intelligent might be close and one man whose ideas of 
statesmanship and his knowledge of the English language would 
enable him to say "Yaw" would make the bill lawful and sci- 
entific. The Swiss system would dispense with 50 per cent of 
the lawyers and law courts of this country. 

THE WEALTH LABOR CREATES. 

(A clipping from the Seattle Daily Times, December 4, 1904.) 

' ' Recently the Central Federated Union of New York City 
put forth the following as a part of a declaration of principles : 

" "Labor produces all wealth, and, therefore, the worker 
is entitled to the full product of his labor. ' ' ' 



78 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

' ' The Philadelphia Record, which is undoubtedly the ablest 
edited journal published in the Quaker City, thereupon com- 
ments upon this declaration as follows: 

" 'As an abstract economic proposition this is entirely true. 
As a reason for distributing- the entire output of a factory 
among the operatives it is entirely untrue. 

" 'Labor, unaided by capital, is represented by a man 
turned loose upon the soil to get from Nature what his bare 
hands can wrest from her. Doubtless he is entitled to all he 
gets, but it would not satisfy any civilized or semi-civilized 
man. 

" 'The man who made the tools, who invented and built 
the machinery, who constructed the mill or furnace or factory, 
the man who conducts the process of production and the man 
who markets the product are all workers, and all entitled to 
portions of the product. 

" 'The distribution is mainly effected by the general com- 
mercial forces represented by supply and demand. So far as 
these have been modified by law or combination the modifica- 
tion is mainly in the interest of the operative. 

" 'Doubtless the distribution is not affected in accordance 
with absolute justice, but there is an approximation toward it, 
and if the above quoted maxim means that the entire output 
of a factory should be divided among the persons who tended 
the machinery, the result would be far more unjust than those 
resulting from the natural laws of trade. 

" 'When it is said that labor produces far more than in 
former years it is only meant that there is more machinery 
and it runs faster; not that the individual is more productive. 
But the individual gets a large fraction of the value of the out- 
put, so that if he be receiving less than his share there is at 
least the consolation that with the progress of industry he is 
advancing slowly toward his rightful dividend.' " 

The Record puts a misconstruction on the declaration of 
principles of the Central Federated Union of New York City. 
Their principles did not mean to take the wages of the man 
who made the tools, nor the man who invented the machinery, 
nor the man who constructed the mill or factory, nor the one 
who conducts the process of production, nor the man who mar- 
kets the product, and the Federated Union includes them in 
their declaration of principles. They also include the wear and 
tear of tools and cost of raw material. What they demand is 
the wealth they produce outside of this. 

The Record refers to the man who made the tools. Tools 
of production are made by the workingmen, who get part of 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 79 

the profits, the rest the tool man claims for himself for bossing 
the job. And when the tool man, as the Record writer calls 
him, or boss, can take what he thinks is his share he is very 
liable to take more than his share, for at present the working- 
men are not getting their share. That is what the Central Fed- 
erated Union wants them to get, not as the Record would have 
us believe. 

This tool man is the man who causes the uneven distribu- 
tion of wealth. This tool man is the man who comes out like 
Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, Schwab, Harrinian, Gould, 
Sage, the Vanderbilts and thousands of others who grasped 
more than their share from the workmen. Those men do not 
know what to do with their wealth, while a great many who 
belong to the Central Federated Union would not know what 
to do for something to eat if there r s a 90 days' strike. A paper 
that will make such a statement is either the prostitute tool 
of corporate greed or a mental degenerate. 

The Daily Times says the Record is the ablest edited jour- 
nal published in the Quaker City. It may be ablest in what the 
city and state is noted for — political corruption. 

POWER OF THE EDITORIAL. 

(By the Seattle Daily Times, Dec. 26, 1904.) 

"Everybody knows that from the very beginning of the 
founding of great newspapers in the United States till long 
after the close of the Civil War those newspapers were the 
chief instrument in formulating opinion in this Nation. 

"James Gordon Bennett established The New York Herald 
in 1835 — and wrote the first editorial leader therefor upon a 
board stretched across the top of a flour barrel in a basement. 

"Horace Greeley was an accomplished printer at that time, 
and did not succeed in the editorship of The New York Tribune 
until six years later — or in 1841. 

"It was long after that when Wilbur F. Story founded The 
Chicago Times, and it was after the close of the Civil War be- 
fore Joseph Medill became the leader of formative opinion in 
the Central West. 

"Along that stretch of time intervening between 1835 and 
1880 a number of men made themselves great by forming pub- 
lic opinion through the editorial columns of leading newspapers 
which they themselves created. 

"Godwin and Godkin, of The New York Evening Post, 
were among that number. Samuel Bowles, of The Springfield 
(Mass.) Republican — and Henry J. Raymond, of The New York 



80 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

Times— and A. K. McClure, of The Philadelphia Times— and 
many other men now famous in history, were aiding in formu- 
lating public opinion as editorial writers upon great newspa- 
pers — whose greatness was the result of the personal endeav- 
ors of those editors. 

"Within a few years, however — certainly within the last 
decade, if not within the last quarter of a century — the opinion 
has prevailed that editorial utterance has failed of leadership 
— and without apparent objection that attitude has been as^ 
sumed to be the correct one. 

"But there's a young man down in Atlanta, Ga., editing 
The Evening News, who takes issue with this acquiescence, 
and declares that editorial leadership has not departed, but 
still exists. 

"Mr. Graves has contributed an article to The Editor and 
Publisher of New York City under the above caption, in which 
he says: 

" 'I have no sympathy with the belief that the power of 
the editorial is a departed glory in American journalism. 
Wherever a really great man finds an arena in which to labor, 
his personality is impressed and his influence becomes great 
whether expressed upon the hustings, in the forum, or in the 
editorial sanctum. 

" 'Who does not remember dear old Elder Stone, of The 
Journal of Commerce, who for twenty years wrote only one 
editorial a day, but compressed into that editorial all the truth, 
all the honesty and all the character that pulsed in his noble 
heart ? 

" 'And who does not remember that The Journal of Com- 
merce exercised such influence upon the business mind of Amer- 
ica that its decisions took the place of arbitrary tribunals in 
business affairs, and became as standard almost as the statutes 
of congress or the findings of the courts? 

" 'Who does not remember how Henry Grady projected 
his beautiful personality upon the American public through the 
editorial column? How in the South he inspired a despairing 
agriculture, purified political policies, awakened industry and 
molded the heart of a great people through the power of the 
tenderness and heartfulness that pulsed in his ringing edi- 
torials ? 

" 'When men lament the early death of Henry Grady they 
forget the fact that he was being swept from the impartial 
attitude which was his throne, into the maelstrom of politics, 
in which, with a hundred rival daggers whetted for his side, 
he could have lost much of his power in the suspicion of a selfish 
interest in public discussions. 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 81 

" 'In our own day we have come to see the editorial pages 
of the New York American solidify and lead the masses of 
American labor, and formulate policies which have organized 
the successful protest of the industrial classes against excessive 
instances of corporate greed. 

" 'But, in my judgment, the power and force of the edi- 
torial in future will rest more and more upon the disinterested 
character and motives of the man behind it. 

" 'The editor who comprehends the situation — the man 
who grapples the elementary facts, who seizes the day's events, 
explains their meaning, points their philosophy and applies 
their significance — the man who grasps the elements and molds 
them with a master purpose and a master policy and with im- 
partial truth, to the great ends of civilization and to the great 
uses of humanity, will have and can have no superior among 
the mental forces of his time. 

" 'I believe that the editorial page will be again the genius 
and the power of the newspaper. I believe that the editor is 
the great man of the future. He has the enginery of human 
omnipotence in his hands. He carries the last appeal to the 
minds and the wills of man, if he but know his tools ; if he but 
comprehend his power ; if he but magnify his calling ; if he shall 
always tell the truth, and if, while he looks with shining eyes 
upon magnificent opportunity, he be sober always with the 
solemn sense of his splendid, vast responsibility. 

" 'For behind all theory and back of all ideas and beyond 
all editorial pages stands the man. The man is the basic fact. 
He must be brave, he must be unselfish, he must love humanity, 
he must love the truth, he must concentrate his aims, he must 
measure his heart-beats in equal pulse with his brain-throbs, 
and he must be ready always to subordinate the selfish purpose 
to the human end of service and to the welfare of the State. 

" 'No great editor should be an aspirant for personal pref- 
erment at the people's hands. He is a teacher and a leader. 
He is a teller of the truth, and he cannot be fair and free and 
fearless in these high lines if he is dependent upon popular 
opinion or an applicant for popular approval. He will inevita- 
bly follow the tides of the opinion which he should direct. 

" 'He will inevitably truckle as the politician to the preju- 
dices which as an editor it is his duty to dispel. He is greater 
in station and in influence than an officeholder. He does not 
need office to dignify him, and he undignifies his own high sta- 
tion when he alloys with the suspicion of a selfish interest the 
pure gold of his righteous advocacies of the disinterested force 
of his editorial pleas. 

" 'I submit the proposition that a strong, brave man who 



82 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

can convince the public by an unselfish life of his personal sin- 
cerity and his patriotic purpose, who thinks bravely and hon- 
estly, who gives good reasons for the faith that is in him, and 
ask no personal favors for himself — can rally and hold a larger 
and more permanent following in a great editorial leadership 
than in any other public station of the time.' " 

The editor of the Daily Times has a very high appreciation 
of the power, sanctity and influence of the press. He has a very 
fine ideal of what an editor should be and that is a long way 
towards a high idea, and the editor may be all that goes to 
make up the ideal. We do not know of any reason why he 
should not be. 

I cannot agree with the editor that the newspapers were 
the chief instruments in formulating opinions in the nation be- 
fore or after the war, but I will agree with him that they are 
the chief instruments in reflecting opinion, so far as they reflect 
correctly. 

I have been a constant subscriber for your paper for six 
years. I have searched the columns closely and I think your 
paper has not always reflected public opinion. Some time ago 
the people of this city voted by an overwhelming majority for 
a lighting plant for the reason they were in the grasp of an 
octopus, and since the city voted that measure the octopus has 
dropped on his cinch prices one-half. Now, Mr. Editor, you 
never missed an opportunity to throw cold water on that neces- 
sary public enterprise. Now it would look like sacrileg to 
say that a man of such high ideals would be plugging for the 
octopus, but it looks funny to a man up a tree. 

There is no doubt there is and has been great men in the 
newspaper business, but you will excuse us if we do not fail 
to worship your alleged omnipotence. 

It is perhaps safe to say that 75 per cent of the papers in 
this country are under the influence of or owned by corpora- 
tions and politicians, controlled by trusts, and they reflect and 
advocate opinions at the dictation of the trusts, to the detri- 
ment and injustice of the great working classes who create the 
wealth of this country. Those corporations never miss a chance 
to misrepresent the actions of the workingman and advocate 
every unscientific economy to keep him in ignorance. 

If you would apply scientific economy to the Philadelphia 
Record she would be in debt for the collar button that holds her 
four-story collar in place. 

The Hearst newspapers, it may be said, are one editorial 
institution which is too large to be controlled by any corpora- 
tion, party or country. 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 83 

Senator Conklin once said of President Arthur that he was 
the stallfed ox of American politics. The stallfed press of the 
American Trust is jealous of the Hearst unparalleled success 
and calls it yellow journalism. 

A man asked the Arkansas farmer what made his corn so 
yellow. The farmer replied that he planted the yellow kind. 

If Hearst is reflecting yellow journalism that is the kind 
the people formulate. The secret of his success is to reflect, and 
not create public opinion. The green-eyed monster reflects his 
pages with the wrong color. The people may have had a glance 
at the astral plane where the oral of human character is visible 
in their varied hues and seen the green far below the spiritual 
golden yellow, but they prefer the yellow kind. They can see 
the yellow, golden sunrise of the twentieth century. The green- 
eyed monster is gazing on the stink; he can't see paradise with 
helldiver's eyes. 

The Hearst papers are the only papers of any magnitude 
that champion the cause of the man who creates the wealth of 
the country; that advocates municipal ownership and state 
ownership of all public utilities, and boldly reflects the ad- 
vanced public opinion of the twentieth century. 

Mr. Hearst did not get.the nomination for President for the 
reason that a strong element in his own party are opposed to 
his advanced ideas, especially the reorganizers of Clevelandism, 
who dethroned the Democratic party. Cleveland made enemies 
of all youg men in the West ; he made enemies of all reformers 
who joined the party in '92; he made enemies of life-long Dem- 
ocrats, but the Republicans and the Republican press and the 
Republican party admire him for the enemies he has made. 

It must have been a political panorama to watch Grover's 
features after he awoke from his political debauch as he glanced 
down the column and read Roosevelt's majorities. 

THE GROVER CLEVELAND PANORAMA. 

Grover must have felt somewhat like the traveling man 
that was on his way from a traveling man's convention. He 
was laid over at an inland town, where there was no train out 
Sunday, so to amuse himself he sported around until the small 
hours after midnight. The next morning he got around about 
10 o'clock. The only 'stir he could see in that quiet town was 
some people going to a Methodist revival meeting. He went 
in and took a seat. The preacher in his exhorting said: "All 
ye that are in favor of going to Heaven stand up." They all 
stood up but the drummer ; he had falen asleep. The preacher 



84 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

looked over the congregation and found they were all stand- 
ing but one, so he said, "I see all are in favor of going to 
Heaven but one man. Now I am going to see where he is in 
favor of going. ' ' He motioned and all sat down. He then 
said in a loud and shrill voice. "All ye in favor of going to 
Hell, stand up." The drummer awoke in time to catch the last 
of the sentence, "stand up,' and he arose. He looked around 
stood up but the drummer ; he had fallen asleep. The preacher 
so he said: "Mr. Preacher, I am not familiar with the question 
before the house, but it is very evident that you and I are in a 
hopeless minority." 

The Presidency is an office that any American may aspire 
to. We have had men from the farm ; men from the work shop. 
We have had men graduates from colleges and universities and 
graduates from law schools, but the people want no more grad- 
uates from the political slums of the city of Buffalo. 

WILSHIRE'S MAGAZINE. 
The Death of the Democratic Party. 

"The Democratic party has been swept off the political 
board. It is true it remains in the South, yet it simply lives 
there as a makeshift barrier against negro domination and as 
a convenient crowbar for certain politicians to break into po- 
litical fat jobs. Neither in the South or the North does it justify 
its further existence, for it has ceased to be the representative 
of the ideas of any economic class and nothing else can justify 
the existence of a political party. 

When the Democrat was the representative of the slave 
power and the agricultural interests of the South as opposed 
to the manufacturing interests of the North it had a right to 
live. 

However, after two attempts at the presidency under the 
banner of Mr. Bryan it was seen that a silver plank would 
never win the presidency, and the Democratic leaders decided 
to make a new move. The Hearst wing said, "Forward." The 
Hill-Belmont-Cleveland wing said, "Backward," The Hill out- 
fit won, nominated Parker on the "sane and safe platform," 
sent out a gold brick telegram and backward the Democratic 
party went, so far backward, indeed, that it has gone com- 
pletely out of sight. 

On the other hand, Hearst, with his program of public 
ownership and denunciation of private wealth, could not have 
attracted a much larger vote. It is true, people are technically 
in favor of public ownership, and most of us will say it is £ 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 85 

scandal that Rockefeller has so much money, but we are not 
sufficiently exercised over the matter to organize a political 
party and express such views at the polls. Why? Simply be- 
cause the Hearst program cannot be shown to lead anywhere. 
We have poverty amongst us. We see our country given over 
hand and body to the rich, but seeing all this does not make, us 
see that denunciation of the rich or even the public ownership 
of the trust and railway will help matters much. 

The people generally who are not owners of property of 
any kind will get absolutely no benefit from the Hearst pro- 
gram of public ownership. 

Mr. Wilshire without doubt is one of the most scientific 
economic writers of the present century. Young and brilliant, 
a millionaire nine times over, he is sacrificing his time and his 
wealth in the Socialist cause and in the interest of humanity. 

His magazine I have subscribed to and read every issue of 
for three years. It stands at the head of the list on political 
economy. If every man would read it, it would lift him out 
of the mire of the competitive system, which is the greatest 
favor that could be conveyed to man. Every man may help 
this cause by reading it and handing it around. It formulates 
public opinion. 

With Mr. Hearst it is different; his papers reflect public 
opinion. His part of the program is not to create or lead. Re- 
flecting is where his power and usefulness lies. If he should 
undertake to formulate public opinion his great circulation 
might drop to a four page weekly and that would destroy his 
usefulness. The formulater is the advanced guard and all 
right in his place, but he cannot take the fort without the main 
army. Those are led up slowly and gradually under the drill 
of public opinion, not led by Hearst's papers. It would be finan- 
cial and political suicide for Mr. Hearst to come out openly 
and advocate Socialism. It makes no difference what his con- 
victions may be. 

People are not all blessed with the scientific mind of Mr. 
Wilshire. They will have to have a practical illustration and 
take over the public utilities gradually one after the other. A 
sudden change would cause a revolution. 

The P.-I. of December 30, 1904, had an editorial, 

1 ' ANARCHISTS ' NATURALIZATION. ' ' 

"A bill has been introduced into congress by Representa- 
tive Connell, of Pensylvania, providing that no anarchist or ni- 
hilist shall be admitted to citizenship. If the present naturalr- 



86 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

zation laws were enforced according to their letter and spirit 
no anarchist, no nihilist and no socialist could be admitted to 
citizenship as it is. Every man in these three classes who ob- 
tains citizenship does so by perjury on his part and on the part 
of his witnesses. Under the Connell bill, if it passed, he could 
obtain citizenship in precisely the same manner. 

' ' There is now required, as a condition precedent to the ad- 
mission of any man to citizenship, proof by the testimony of 
disinterested witnesses that the applicant is 'a man of good 
moral character, attached to the principles of the constitution 
of the United States.' It requires no argument to prove that 
a man who is an anarchist, a socialist or a nihilist is not at- 
tached to the principles of the constitution of the United 
States. The applicant is himself required to take an oath to 
support the constitution of the United States, an oath which no 
one belonging to these classes can take without mental reser- 
vations. 

"What is wanted is not more laws intended to prevent the 
admission to citizenship of men who are opposed to the prin- 
ciples of our government, but a more rigid enforcement of the 
existing laws. Instead of the perfunctory putting of perfunc- 
tory questions to witnesses who may or may not understand 
their purport and meaning, there should be a rigid examination 
of the applicant and his witnesses, with precisely the same so- 
lemnity and formality that attaches to any other proceeding 
in a court of justice, and an adjudication of the matter by the 
court upon the testimony before it, with the same attention to 
the testimony, to the law, and to its meaning, as attends any 
other judicial determination by a court. 

"If the law itself needs serious amendment in any par- 
ticular, it should be, as suggested by President Roosevelt, in 
the direction of requiring publicity of the intention to apply 
for papers of citizenship. It might further be amended so as 
to permit of the withdrawal of citizenship, and the setting aside 
of the order of the court, when the decree has been obtained 
through fraud or perjury in any essential matter, with recogni- 
tion of the fact that perjury committed as to the question of the 
applicant's good moral character or his attachment to the prin- 
ciples of the constitution of the United States is as serious as 
when the perjury refers merely to the length of time in which 
the applicant has lived in this country. The latter requirement 
is the only one to which any real attention has been paid in 
the past ; yet it is but one of many requirements, all made es- 
sential by the law, to qualify a man for admission to citizenship 
in this country. From many points of view the other require-- 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 87 

ments are far more important than the minor question of the 
length of residence in the United States. ' ' 

The present naturalization laws would certainly exclude 
anarchists, they are violators of the law; it would exclude ni- 
hilists, they are murderers; but the Socialists' theory is neither 
a violation of law nor an advocate of murder. The Socialist 
theory does not violate the constitution. It does not advocate 
a theory that would take one cent that belongs to another man, 
nor appropriate one cent in any way, shape or form that be- 
longs to the man who produced it. The Socialists advocate 
public ownership. This city is building a lighting plant that is 
not appropriating the Seattle Electric Light Company's prop- 
erty, but has forced this octopus to come down one-half. If 
that is appropriating property then all that voted for this light 
plant should be disfranchised, according to the P.-L's idea of 
constitutional law. All who advocate the public ownership 
of the postoffice, public roads, schools, universities, colleges, 
water works, parks, penitentiaries, insane asylums, city, county, 
state and national government, army and navy, all who advocate 
the public ownership of these utilities are violators of the con- 
stitutional law. The man who demands the full value of what 
he produces less the cost of tools and raw material, according 
to the P. -I., is violating the constitutional law and should not 
be allowed to vote. If the Socialists' theory is unconstitutional 
then all these public utilities are unconstitutional and should, 
according to the constitutional idea, be turned over to some 
grafter so he could cinch the public as the Seattle Electric Light 
Company has been doing for the last ten years. If the P. -I. 
could disfranchise the vote of the Socialist, if she could dis- 
franchise the vote of this city, the people of this city would be 
still paying $2.00 for gas instead of one. The P. -I. is the hired 
tool of the octopus. "When the P.-I. prostitutes its columns with 
the assertion of disfranchising people for voting for their rights 
you should put the P.-I. after the anarchist and nihilist in place 
of the Socialist. 

The P.-I. does not like the Socialist theory. The honest 
scientific theory of Socialism would show the P.-I. that under 
a scientific form of government she would be a parasite on the 
man who produces the wealth of this country, to the last cent 
she grafts from the people. 

FROM GOVERNOR MEAD'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

"The student in the higher educational institutions should 
receive wholesome advice and instruction in the duties and 



88 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

obligations of good citizenship, and he should be taught to 
revere the form of government established by our forefathers. 
Any attempt upon the part of an instructor or the management 
of any of our higher institutions to arouse in the minds of the 
student body a feeling of prejudice or hostility towards the 
form of government which has survived for more than a cen- 
tury and has been the mightiest factor known to history in ad- 
vancing the cause of civilization, or to influence the boys and 
girls of this state to believe that our system of government is 
based upon fallacious principles and should, therefore, ulti- 
mately be overthrown, will receive immediate attention from 
the executive department and the instructor engaged in the 
exploitation of such un-American ideas will receive immediate 
dismissal." — From Gov. Mead's inaugural address. 

There was in the inaugural address of Governor A. E. Mead 
a plain intimation that he proposes to make a change in the 
faculty of the University of Washington. It may be that an 
intimation will be conveyed to J. T. Ronald, who will be the 
first new regent to be named, that this change would be ac- 
ceptable to the governor, or the intimation may be made more 
plainly to all the regents. 

Nothing save just that interpretation can be given the dec- 
laration in the governor's inaugural address that instructors 
who teach that the fundamental principles of this government 
are wrong cannot be retained. 

THINKS SOCIALISM EXISTS, 

Rightfully or wrongfully the governor believes that there 
is a small organization of Socialists at the State University 
and that they have been working among the students of that 
institution. It has been told him that Dr. J. Allen Smith, the 
professor of political economy, leans in that direction, and that 
several of the minor employes of the school have Socialistic 
tendencies. 

Shortly after the last school election, when the Socialists 
carried the precinct in which the university is located, the 
story was carried to Mr. Mead that they had their strongest 
following in the State University among a small faction that 
had heretofore escaped general notice. 

SYMPATHIZE WITH IT. 

Some of the students sympathized with what was known as 
the theoretical Socialism and voted with the practical expon- 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 89 

ents of the creed. According to politicians close to the governor 
he declared at that time that he would clean out the Socialist 
organization. 

In his inaugural address, as the King county delegation 
recognized, he spoke strongly against Socialism. He did not 
mention the creed plainly, and those lacking in familiarity with 
the State University charges probably failed to realize what he 
meant by his denunciation of an instructor who talked against 
the principles of government in this state. But the intimation 
is clear enough to give a general idea of Mr. Mead's policy. 

Dr. J. Allen Smith, head of the department of economics at 
the State University, when seen stated that he had no intima- 
tion of any charge being preferred against him, and would re- 
fuse to answer any charges not specifically presented by some 
one authorized to do so. As for his views on public questions, 
Dr. Smith stated that he had presented them in addresses and 
printed articles too frequently to need a restatement. 

Dr. Smith came to the university in 1897 from Marietta 
college, where he held the chair of political and social science. 
Dr. Smith received his A. B. degree from the University of 
Missouri in 1886, and an LL. B. degree from the same college 
in 1887. From 1887 till 1892 he engaged in the practice of law 
in Kansas City. From 1892 to 1894 Dr. Smith was a student at 
the University of Michigan and was graduated from that insti- 
tution with the degree of doctor of philosophy. The following 
year he went to Marietta college, where he remained two years 
before coming to the university here. 

At the conclusion of the governor's address the following 
most extraordinary words were uttered: 

"These enemies of civic righteousness and good govern- 
ment, bearing no commission from the people, no letters of 
marque to engage in political privateering, acting under no 
oath of office, worshiping only the god Mammon, cherising no 
high ideals, will haunt the corridors of this capitol building 
from now until adjournment. They dare not fight in the open 
for they realize that, like the fatal basilisk, 'whose breath was 
poison and whose look was death,' their active, open espousal 
of any cause would damn it." 

The distinguished Governor, in his inaugural address, said 
that the students in the higher educational institutions should 
receive wholesome advice and instruction in the duties and 
obligations of good citizenship and should be taught to revere 
the form of government established by our forefathers. I do 
not know Dr. J. Allen Smith ; I do not know what he is teach- 
ing at the University. If he is teaching political and social sci- 



90 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

ence and philosophy in its true sense, he is certainly teaching 
Socialism, and the students must be affected by it, and would 
naturally vote for scientific prinicples. When Dr. J. Allen 
Smith's honest and scientific political knowledge will be ex- 
tended to other precincts the result will be a majority for So- 
cialism as it was at the university. 

The distinguished Governor, it is plain, does not under- 
stand the science of political economy. A man can take a few 
law books and go back into some country town and study law, 
and make a very fair second-class country lawyer, but political 
science takes years of study. It has to be theorized; there are 
no standard works to refer to. 

Scientific economy does not conflict with the teachings of 
our forefathers, but it does conflict with the political graft of 
the present day. It conflicts with the theory that licenses 
crime and applies the proceeds on your taxes. It conflicts with 
court decisions which allow a man to steal $7,000 of the county 
funds. It conflicts with the county attorney's office when it 
becomes a protection for criminals. It conflicts with selling 
senatorial plums to the highest bidder. It objects to the nom- 
ination of state officers by star chamber and private car condi- 
tions. It conflicts with all private ownership which creates 
the uneven distribution of wealth. Its cardinal principles are 
truth, justice, the greatest good to the greatest number, and 
the greatest result from the least exertion. This working the 
modern political graft, and standing behind our forefathers, is 
too thin for even the longshoreman who has taken his first a, 
b, c lesson in scientific economy. 

The distinguished Governor said that any attempt on the 
part of the instructors or the management of any of our higher 
institutions to arouse in the minds of the students prejudice or 
hostility towards this form of government, influencing the boys 
and girls of this state to believe that our system of government 
is based on fallacious principles, which should, therefore, ulti- 
mately be overthrown, will receive immediate attention from 
the executive department and the instructor will receive im- 
mediate dismissal. 

The instructor is certainly very reckless, when he is in 
office by the grace of corporate greed, to teach that which is 
his solemn duty and which he is hired to teach, when it shows 
up the graft. He must remember that the days of Galileo are 
not yet past. We have only changed from ignorant supersti- 
tion to corporate greed, and while he may not be imprisoned 
for a term of years, he will be deprived of a livelihood in the 
profession which cost him years of study, even though it may 
be one of the most essential of the human sciences. But he e 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 91 

will be a sacrifice to the cause. More boys and girls will in- 
vestigate what Dr. Smith was fired for, and when they do, they 
will land where the university students are — in the Socialist 
party. 

The distinguished Governor appears to be unduly alarmed 
at what he calls the enemies of civic righteousness and good 
government, bearing no commission from the people, no letter 
of marque to engage in political privateering, acting under no 
oath of office. When the distinguished Governor shall have 
emerged a little longer from obscurity and become familiar with 
modern graft politics, he will learn that this is a class of vul- 
tures that prey on rottenness that is sometimes a full crop 
around state legislatures. They scent from afar the fat that is 
being rendered that has an extra flavor this year at Olympia, 
of which they expect to pick up the crumbs which the gentle- 
men bearing the letters of marque and who take the oath of 
office may let fall. 

Those gentlemen, too, may do some political privateering. 
One of those who took the oath of office and has a letter of 
marque, and is now gracing a seat in the state senate, made 
the proud boast on the streets of Seattle recently that if he 
thought he had an honest 5-cent piece in his possession he 
would dig it up and throw it away. There is not a man in 
King county who would bet a mill against a million that he 
did not tell the truth for once at least. 

The distinguished Governor must not think that all who 
visit the capital are grafters, nor would they like to see the 
sign on the floor of the corridor, "Keep of the Grass." It is 
just as much public property as the streets or parks. The offi- 
cers of the state house are public servants, not dictators. The 
officers must not think they are the whole thing and that the 
people are the center of the doughnut. 

But this frightful basilisk, whose breath is poison and 
whose look is death, must destroy the blissful slumber of the 
distinguished Governor, and he will say, in the words of Ham- 
let : " Art thou spirit of health or goblin damned ; bring thou 
airs from Heaven or blasts from hell?" 

We cannot estimate the evil mystic powers of some people, 
but the way to break that charm is to have every one who en- 
ters the corridor uncover his head, put his hand on his breast, 
and say: "Peace be to the star-chamber-private-car's obscure 
production. ' ' 



92 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

SOCIALISM AN EFFECT. 

By Rev. Father Kirby. 

"Socialism is one of the forms of organized social discon- 
tent. As such it must be classed with unionism, single tax, pop- 
ulism Catholic and general reform activity, municipal leagues, 
etc. Fundamentally the same psychological factors produce 
all, viz : dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, and an ef- 
fective desire to improve conditions by reform. These forms 
of social movement are not differentiated primarily by their 
form of protest so much as by the plan of reform proposed. 

KNOW IT AS IT IS. 

' ' The elements that make reform movements are permanent 
in the human race. Hence to look upon Socialism as the arbi- 
trary creation of lawless men, to look upon it chiefly as a form 
of atheism, to rest content with denunciations, is an inexcus- 
able error. We priests must know it as it is ; know it as an 
effect, understand the causes which produce it; discriminate 
in our dealing with Socialists, and understand that abuse and 
inaccurate information would expose us to merited ridicule and 
weaken our power. 

"We cannot learn Socialism from academic books; we must 
go to the Socialists, to their propaganda literature and press, 
learn from them what they are and what produces them. We 
should give them credit for honesty and earnestness until we 
know that they do not merit such consideration. In this way 
we will know actually what Socialism is. 

SOCIALISM IS AN EFFECT. 

"It must be looked upon as an effect. Men are not Social- 
ists until they lose confidence in government. Do the facts of 
political corruption — which none of us deny — warrant one's 
despair? Men are not Socialists until they believe that honest 
human competition in industry is impossible. Who doubts the 
extent, variety of pernicious and villainous deception, adultera- 
tion, cheating and defrauding that go on daily? 

"Men are not Socialists until they believe that the inter- 
ests of wealth displace those of men as men in our institutions. 
Can we deny that appearances go to show that wealth is too 
powerful ? 

"When these facts of political corruption are marshalled; 
when by their side we place the facts and dishonest business 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 93 

method universally met with; when we review the power of 
money in our institutions, we have before us a set of facts ap- 
palling in their magnitude, and disheartening in their signifi- 
cance. 

EVIL SOCIAL CONDITIONS EXIST. 

"We conservatives think always of what our institutions 
have done; many think always of what our institutions have 
failed to do. From among these come our Socialists. 

"The hideous aspects of our moral, social, industrial, po- 
litical life are heaped up in consciousness, and these men live 
in the presence of that despair begetting power. You may say 
that Socialists are lazy, or idle, or intemperate, or vicious. I 
care not. I wish to insist mainly on one point ; that Socialism 
is an effect, natural, necessary, unavoidable in present historical 
circumstances. If we priests wish to deal with it in a way 
worthy of our power, we must take hold of the conditions 
which produce it. The Church must oppose it, for it is a men- 
ace, immediately, to our institutions, and remotely to our faith. 
But the clergy must stand squarely and face the facts which 
are making Socialism. 

"Let us go to the Socialists, and find out sympathetically 
what are their feelings, their intentions. Let us face the evils 
which they rightly criticise, and make war on them. But let 
us never confine ourselves to resolutions or condemnations of 
organized Socialism. 

"A body of public leaders who will vote a condemnation 
of Socialism and be silent about the deplorable phases of our 
political, commercial and industrial life, would not show the 
wisdom or perception that we may legitimately expect of those 
who attempt to direct public opinion. 

* ' Of course, I do not underrate the force of the Socialistic 
propaganda, nor do I forget that men may be talked into it. In 
as far as this is the case, there is some good in resolutions, hon- 
est opposition and enlightened warning. But the main power 
of Socialism is in the evils which we see and the despair which 
they engender. This is particularly the case since education is 
universal, democratic equality of man and man is taken as an 
axiom, and the individual believes in his own value as never 
before. 

HOW TO CUT THE GROUND FROM UNDER IT. 

"The main emphasis in Catholic action should be laid on 
practical reform work. In Catholic Europe we find admirable 



94 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

results. A coherent, timely philosophy of reform has been 
worked out and the clergy are actively interested in the ma- 
terial welfare of laborers. The Holy Father in his encylical 
Rerum Novarum, gives Socialism only secondary attention, 
while the main force of that splendid document is directed to 
reform. The principles therein contained are in accord with 
the best tendencies and wisest statesmanship of our time. We 
should master them, know their relations and limitations. We 
should then know the facts in modern life, be thoroughly 
versed in everything that bears on the whole organization of 
current social discontent. We must avoid hasty generaliza- 
tions, inaccurate information, and immature judgment. Social 
discontent cannot be suppressed. It will yield to proper di- 
rection. But that direction must take account of all that is 
true in complaint and just in criticism today. 

"Proper attention to social reform will deprive Socialism 
of its power, while more direct opposition to it accomplishes 
little." — From The Missionary. 

I must say that the Rev. Father Kirby ? s paper on Social- 
ism is the fairest, most intellectual and Christian-like comment 
of all the Catholic clergy or Protestant ministers so far heard 
from. Not only among the clergy, but among other high pro- 
fessionals, are found ideas on political science which are pain- 
fully absurd, and sound like a man talking on a complicated 
mathematical proposition who does not know that twice one 
are two. 

Father Kirby said that if proper attention was paid to 
social reform it will deprive Socialism of its power. Proper 
attention paid to social reform will not deprive Socialism of 
its power, but will build it up. The Socialists not only want 
proper attention paid to social reform, but they want social 
reform put in practice. The Socialists are paying strict atten- 
tion to social reform and the study of the cardinal principles of 
political economy — truth, justice, the greatest good to the 
greatest number, and the greatest result from the least exer- 
tion. That is political science; that is Socialism. 

The Catholic Northwest, a bright, newsy magazine of Seat- 
tle, full of solid moral and intellectual reading, edited by Miss 
Johnston, one of the brightest women in the state, made the 
assertion that the church was opposed to Socialism because it 
would take the children from under the paternal care. The 
school system is already under the Socialist plan, and little 
change would be necessary from what it has been for the last 
one hundred years. The present system has not taken the chil- 
dren from under the paternal care, as that lady must know, as 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 95 

she taught school for some years. The editor, on the next page 
in her usual sympathetic way, described the condition of some 
75,000 operatives who were thrown out of work at Fall River, 
Mass. I quote from her editorial along the same line : "Public 
attention of late has been called to a hideous condition of af- 
fairs prevalent in most of the Southern states, viz : child labor 
in the cotton mills. 

The greed of wealth in the New England states and the 
poverty and avarice of the planters in the South have combined 
to produce a condition which is a foul blot on our much- 
vaunted high priced labor, the latter a home market for its cot- 
ton. While money is being squandered like water to educate the 
children of the heathen in the far off land and to pervert the 
faith of other children who are already civilized and Christian, 
a great army of children here at home, within our borders, are 
wearing out their puny, wretched young lives in the stifling 
atmosphere of the cotton mills of the South, to the end that the 
Yankee mill-owner may receive a larger dividend on his invest- 
ment than he could get at home. Twenty thousand of those 
little unfortunates of six years old and upwards in South Caro- 
lina alone toil twelve hours a day for six days in the week. The 
brutalizing effect of this incessant toil effectually shuts out of 
their lives every vestige of spiritual or intellectual uplift. 

There has been much felicitation of late over the rapid in- 
dustrial development of the New South. They realize that the 
fabric of its boasted prosperity was reared upon the blighted 
souls and dwarfed bodies of children. It needs an awakened 
public sentiment in this matter to restrain the greed of capital 
and procure the legislation necessary to protect the child in its 
elementary rights." 

The editor is quick to see the injustice of the competitive 
system, but she is opposed to Socialism, that will wholly re- 
move those conditions. The Socialist theory would be to pre- 
vent the children working until they were fourteen years old; 
then it would be to learn some trade that was best fitted for 
them. The children in the South, and the children of the par- 
ents in the North in the Fall River district, and the old men 
and the old women, too, would be better under the co-operative 
system. 

Outside of educating the children in a practical way, and 
placing them where they would be self-supporting, there would 
not necessarily be any control. 

The church is afraid of religious prejudice, which will dis- 
appear under Socialism, as we will show further on. 



96 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

WAS CHRIST A SOCIALIST, BY DR. TITUS AND THE REV. 

STANLEY. 

A debate between Herman F. Titus and Rev. H. D. Stanley 
New Year's Eve at Carpenter's Hall, Seattle. 

It was the contention of Dr. Titus that when on earth 
Christ could not have been a Socialist, but would be one if he 
were here now. Rev. Stanley took the opposition. 

Dr. Titus opened the speaking. In part he said : 

''I yield to no one in my reverence and respect for Jesus 
Christ, but neither do I yield to any one in my contempt for 
the church that bears his name. I left the established church 
in which I had worked for years because I found I could no 
longer remain a Christian in it. 

"Unless Christ changed His methods He could not be a 
Socialist today. What was the main purpose of Christ's com- 
ing to earth and in His teachings ? Simply this. These things : 
'I command ye that you love one another.' He proved that 
what He taught ; He believed, and He proved it better than 
any one has proved this teaching before or since. 

"What was the method of Christ's teaching? He would 
discard His teachings now to a certain extent at least ; because 
He would have too much sense not to take the only chance left 
open to Him upon earth and join the Socialist movement, where, 
when the movement is successful, there will be no more class, 
no more tyranny, and where universal brotherhood will prevail. 

"Christ could not, in His day and age, have been a Social- 
ist; that He could now, however, is affirmed. Were He on 
earth today the Socialist party would be His only home. Why 
could He not believe in Socialism in His day? Simply because 
in His day slavery existed as a fact. He could no more be a 
Socialist in His day than He could have been an electrician or a 
railroad engineer, for Socialism did not exist in His day. The 
modern idea of Socialism is impossible except in the modern era. 

The Rev. Stanley said in part : 

"The issue is simply this: If the principles of Jesus 
Christ were applied to modern civilization and to modern meth- 
ods of business, they would drive out of Seattle every grafter, 
legalized or otherwise, in the city; it would solve in one blow 
the whole question of class struggle and everything else. 

"Socialists attack the church. If we ministers find you 
trying to drive us out we will simply throttle Socialism. If 
Socialism is right it will live; if wrong it will die. If some 
of you Socialists would get a little nearer God you would get 
a little nearer common sense. In your argument you are try- * 



TO THE CATHOLIC PROGRESS. 97 

ing to save the world by Socialism. You might as well try to 
lift yourselves by your bootstraps.' 

Two opposing elements were visible. One bitterly opposed 
to the church; the other as firmly opposed to Socialism. They 
were both right in their own theory, but wrong in the other. 
If they would join issues they would have perfection. 

Dr. Titus is one of the ablest and most persistent workers 
and ablest debaters in the Socialist party of this state. He is 
sacrificing his whole life and energy in the interests of his 
party and the human race. 

Rev. Stanley stood boldly for the cause and the principles 
of religion, but there is an element that is swaying the other 
way. It is estimated that in this country fully 60 per cent of 
the population are outside any church. 

Has the exortoric power of the church, like the competitive 
system, lived its allotted time, and will it be replaced by exor- 
toric theological science? Will some wise sage answer? 

CONCLUSION. 

At the commencement of this, I simply intended to answer 
the editorial of the Catholic Progress of November 4, 1904, in 
a short letter, but I drifted onward and feel now as if I could 
spend my spare hours for the next six months giving reasons 
why I am opposed to the present competitive system. I be- 
lieve that any man who will go out with the average business 
man who is what we call successful and who claims to be a 
strict church member, will find that the successful "religious" 
business man is a hypocrite. The competitive system forces a 
man to be dishonest, or forces him out of business. 

The world is a great amphi-theater — a stage where every 
human being plays a part. It is not so much the part you play, 
as, Do you play that part well? 

The world is a kindergarten where we have models. Those 
models are not the man who can sway the people with oratorical 
power; it is not the successful candidate who goes to Washing- 
ton and gets decoyed with that false glare ; it is not the woman 
who wears elaborate' dresses and diamonds; it is not the man 
who parades our avenues with epaulettes and gold braid, war 
paint and feathers, to remind the human race that there still 
exists in the human breast a desire to take human life ; it is not 
the man who commands a war vessel and crosses the sea to de- 
stroy a foreign port or sink a foreign fleet, with combat itive 
and destructive factors so overdeveloped that they overheat the 
brain, and nothing less than the flvino- missiles of destruction 



FEB 13 19C5 



98 A SOCIALIST'S ANSWER 

can fan his heated brow. None of these models are what we 
should follow. There is another, that of a man who expends 
his physical and mental energies in the interest of the human 
race, that man whose power of exhortation, through his prayer 
and supplications pierces the wall of his sacred cloister, pierces 
the wall of his monastrery, pierces the walls of the mountain 
ranges and vibrates o'er the universe, felt but not perceived by 
human eyes, which shines in a halo of light on the astral plain, 
that man of whom poets raved and sages wrote, that model, 
that pure life as it were, transcends the sublime, the monk and 
his beads. - J. K. 



A 

SOCIALIST'S 

Answer to The 

CATHOLIC 

Progress 



By JOHN KINAN 



Price, Fifty Cents. 



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